Mozart Requiem K626. Tuba mirum with fagotto solo
Score
Commentary
Mozart’s Requiem, K626, was published in 1800 by Breitkopf and Härtel,
Leipzig, in a version with the introductory solo in the Tuba Mirum set for
fagotto solo, with the trombone playing only the introductory chords.
A copy is reproduced here, courtesy of Dennis Pajot of Mozart Forum.
The Breitkopf 1800 version is held in the Stadtbibliothek zu Leipzig, PM 698
and the Österreichisches Nationalbibliothek, Wien, SH. Mozart. 664. Mus.
A modern performance, with bassoon instead of trombone can be heard on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjxpwMl662M&feature=related
It is not known whether the use of bassoon reflected the competence of available players,
or whether it related to previous uncertainty about the instrumentation. A critic, who may
have heard both versions, writing in The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1801
was not impressed by the substitution - see commentary.
The publisher Anton Andre of Offenbach-am-Main in The Quarterly Musical and
Magazine Review, vol IX of 1827, pp 408-9, gives some background on the
instrumentation controversy – see commentary.
Further information:
Mozart’s Requiem, Christoph Wolff and Mary Whittall,
University of California Press, 1998, p 155, 160, 162.
Pajot D (2007) Two Mozart vocal movements rearranged with bassoon by Johann Adam
Hiller. The Double Reed 2007, 30: 75-79.