"Life" and "death" have always been the themes of artistic creation, some people think about "death" from "life", and some people use "death" to reflect "life". In the process of exploring the meaning of life and death, the existence of religion undoubtedly provides people with a perspective and path.
In 1791, when Mozart's light of life was about to be extinguished, his masterpiece "Requiem" expressed his thoughts on life and death and the inquiry into the meaning of life with highly artistic and profound music. "Requiem" began with the Catholic Mass ceremony to comfort the deceased, is a special type of Mass, with the development of "Requiem Mass", its function is no longer limited to the mourning of the dead in religion, but gradually expanded into a musical form to mourn the deceased, appease future generations and even as an independent musical aesthetic, Mozart's "Requiem" is his work that borrows the religious musical paradigm of "Requiem Mass" to express the concept of personal life and death.
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There have been many theories about the relationship between the Requiem and Mozart's death, and in 1791, the poor and ill Mozart was commissioned by a mysterious man to compose a "Requiem", and the special musical theme and the mystery of the visitor made Mozart pay special attention to this work, and even had a premonition that his life journey was coming to an end.
"Requiem" poured all of Mozart's efforts, and he even thought it was a "requiem" written for himself. Faced with the fateful number of life and death, Mozart on the sickbed was powerless to resist, and died suddenly when the ninth song "The Book of Tears" was first written, and the popular version we hear today was compiled by Mozart's student Susmeer according to his draft.
Requiem is actually a branch of Mass, mainly referring to the special Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for the super-undead, the lyrics of the Requiem are basically the same as ordinary Mass, but the Glory Sutra and the Creed are omitted, and "The Day of Wrath" is added. It is called a requiem because the first verse begins with "Requiem aeternam" (the first sentence is "Lord, give them eternal rest"), and the term requiem is musically accepted by many people, and the church generally translates it as a memorial song.
If a rough musician were to name the most famous requiem in history, I am afraid that nine out of ten would answer Mozart's Requiem. The reason people are enthusiastic about "Requiem" is more out of curiosity. In 1826, an eventful German composer named Gottfried Weber wrote a book in which the authenticity of Mozart's Requiem, which was premiered more than 30 years ago, raised questions about the authenticity of Mozart's Requiem, and re-hooked people's infinite interest in the past, and all kinds of legends, hypotheses, rumors, speculations and beautiful fantasies about Requiem were released one after another, and everything about Mozart became a sought-after commodity, and since then, the study of "Requiem" has become part of Mozart's studies.