Mozart Requiem: Confutatis—with video chat

Confutatis. Fire side video chat 6

Luca Singorelli Oriveto Chapel The damned are a group of sinners who have transgressed so seriously that they have been denied entry into the kingdom of heaven. Instead, they have become a mass of desperate humanity as they twist and gesture the anguish is etched on the faces of this writhing multitude. They remain helpless as demons from hell arrive and capture them in preparation for their transportation to the underworld. 

Movement 6—Confutatis—Andante —A minor, ending in F major—40 measures

Confutatis maledictis

When the accursed are confounded

Flammis acribus addictis,

Consigned to the bitter flames,

Voca me cum benedictis.

Call me with the blessed.

Oro supplex et acclinis,

I pray, suppliant and kneeling,

Cor contritum quasi cinis,

my heart contrite as if it were ashes,

Gere curam mei finis.

Protect me in my final hour.

MM1-6. The tenors and basses’ forte entries, with furious agitated lower string accompaniment, capture the powerful struggles of the damned (maledictis) in a thunderous, dissonant fugue,

M7. The sopranos’ and altos’ homophonic and unison rhythm implore “voca me cum benedictis” in an ethereal mood, accompanied by a benign violin ascending arpeggio and descending scale: Their voices are not of angels, but of the lucky blessed who will go to heaven, as opposed to the maledictis.

Pickup to Letter B, M11: the basses and tenors re-enter with a struggle again in sinuous contrapuntal texture.

Letter C, M17. And again, the upper voices, with some interweaving of lines, invoke the blessed ones.

Letter D, M26: The basses intone oro supplex et aclinis, joined by the lower and upper voices join in a supplication for God’s attention to their individual deaths (mei finis).

In the orchestra, the lower strings pulse on the beat, while the more active upper strings suggest anxious beating hearts.

Similarly at E, M30: Cor contritum quasi cinis.

And similarly at F, M34: Gere curam mei.

In these almost static statements, low and slow, replete with the awe-ful vision of mei finis, it is not difficult to imagine Mozart voicing his own fear of impending death, especially as the choir leaves off before the orchestra, who close the movement in F major, in a gesture of acceptance.

The F major chord has pulsed through the penultimate measure, and it halts, stock still, on the first beat of the last measure…silence on beat 2, and then the inverted and forward-leaning dominant seventh chord of D minor, turns the music and the listener to the Lacrymosa (Tears) movement.

Remember the arc formation of the fifteen movements of the Requiem: the opening movements, 1 and 2, repeated as the closing movements, 14 and 15. These two almost identical sets of movements form two sets of pillars, like Doric columns. Movements 3-13 for the architrave, (the horizontal structure that sits on top of and between columns as a key component of the building's structure), and the seventh and middle movement, the beloved Lacrymosa, at the structural and emotional peak of the whole edifice.