A New Sanctus Benedictus and Agnus Dei (for the Mozart Requiem) 2013 by Gregory H Spears

The following movements were commissioned by Seraphic Fire to replace the traditional Süssmayr Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei from the Mozart Requiem. They are performed here by Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra conducted by Patrick Dupre Quigley.

While reading about Mozart’s Requiem, I came across a rare recording by conductor Eugen Jochum from 1955. On the recording, the traditional Mozart/Süssmayr completion was performed as part of a memorial service in Vienna.1 This historical recording — which interpolated organ improvisations and chanted texts into the musical fabric — was a reminder that a Requiem, when performed as a mass, invites music from different sources and time periods. Mozart’s Requiem was itself highly influenced by Baroque music and begins with a conspicuous borrowing from Handel’s Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. While the following movements do not directly imitate Mozart’s 18th-century style, they do pay homage to the juxtaposition of old and new apparent in Mozart’s late work and much of the liturgical music of the period. 


One of the enduring stories concerning the Requiem was that Constanze Mozart gave Franz Zaver Süssmayr various musical “scraps” left by her husband in order to help the young composer write the missing movements. In homage to this myth, I have incorporated two cadential fragments from Süssmayr’s completion into the end of my Benedictus and Agnus Dei.

Contains tracks

• SPEARS Sanctus by Gregory H Spears
• SPEARS Benedictus by Gregory H Spears
• SPEARS Agnus Dei by Gregory H Spears