Movement 5—Rex Tremendae—Grave—g minor—22 measures
The Rex Tremendae (“Majestic King”) movement is the third musical movement of the liturgical Sequence, It is placed between two movements for solo quartet, the Tuba Mirum (including trombone solo) and the Recordare.
Rex tremendae majestatis,
King of terrifying majesty,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
who freely saves the saved:
Salve me, fons pietatis.
Save me, fount of pity.
Text
Tremendae means “who must be trembled before.” Pietatis, from the noun pietas, connotes “piety” in the sense of duty or doing the right thing, as well as a feeling for what man and deity owe to each other.
Con-text
This movement’s text follows a common ancient prayer pattern that begins by invoking the deity and moves on to make a request. Mozart gives the invocation all the might and splendor he can muster in Rex tremendae majestatis, moves to a more measured but still splendid mood in qui salvandos, salvas gratis, and, typically, makes a sudden transition to plaintive pianissimo with the achingly personal request salva me.
Music
The Rex Tremendae is a mere 22 measures. Ironically, it is both the shortest movement in the Requiem and one that conveys resplendent regality and majesty. The key is G minor.
G minor is regarded as a key expressive of deep emotions: discontent, sadness, grief, melancholy, unease, angst, introspection, worry, and foreboding due to its inherently somber quality. Mozart uses G minor to express deep sadness: Two such works are the Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183, the "Little G minor symphony", (1773) which Mozart wrote at 17 years old. Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, the "Great G minor symphony"(1788) is a mature work of Mozart and one of the most admired work, reflecting Mozart's interest in the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") that emphasizes darker, stronger emotions.
In the Requiem, Mozart will return to G minor in the Domine Jesu movement.
Construction
In the opening 6 measures of the Rex Tremendae movement, Mozart again turns back to the Baroque, specifically the so-called French Overture style, conveyed in the strings’ dotted rhythms fueling four scales descending in octaves, portraying the descent of the King from on high to meet the repentant on earth. In the music a cinematic sound image of pomp, splendor, and regal solemnity.
This King’s descent, as if from Heaven to earth, is set against the backdrop of the dotted rhythm descending string scales in MM 1, 3, 4, 5. The choir calls out not one Rex! but three. MM 3, 4, 5 , a heraldic fanfare, like in the theatre, where three knocks precede the curtain opening. “Rex, Rex, Rex!” The choir declaims, each of these exclamatory, monosyllabic, trumpet-like calls on the second beats of consecutive measures, infusing motion and dynamism.
Choirestry
Letter U, M6 and M12: The sings the rhythm as printed, single dotted eighths and sixteenths. The single dots suggest a majestic gait and unhurried pomp. You may have sung or heard this measure with double dotting, to match the opening dotted sixteenth thirty second rhythm, but I like the contrast, so let's do these two measures as printed.
But MM7-10 and 12-17 double dot the dotted eighths, so that the closing sixteenth of the beat becomes a thirty second, matching the orchestra’s dotted sixteenth-thirty second in these measures, and providing forward trajectory. Although the sixteenth-thirty second belongs arithmetically with the prior dotted eighth, its musical function is to lead to the next beat and dotted note.
Following the grand, theatrical entrance, a simultaneous triple canon unfolds, MM7-17: one canon between Alto and Soprano, one between Tenor and Bass, and one between upper and lower strings. The canonic texture gives the opportunity for the voices to repeat the insistent request “Rex tremendae majestatis, qui salvandos, salvas gratis.” With ascending leaps in the melodic line, particularly the poignant minor 6ths, the mood is more personal, and the requests emphasized through repetitions.
Letter W, MM 18-22: In contrast to the divine majesty of the opening: “salva me”, piano, in D minor, the dominant minor, and in only two like/similar voices at a time. Here the persons asking for salvation, “salva me!” beseech quietly, almost haltingly: S & A, silence, then T & B, silence…before they come together in a final homorhythm. With a diminuendo onto the first beat of the final measure, the orchestra sighs, then folds in on itself. A movement that opened with such pomp and circumstance comes to a personal, quiet, close, in and on the dominant minor, inward, not returning to the G minor of the opening, but waiting, on the dominant, hoping for salvation!
The promise of that salvation is to be found in the next movement, Recordare, where “Jesu pie” (kind Jesus) is found.
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