October 22, 2005
From the "Zeitung fuer Damen and Andere Frauenzimmer", Graz, 18 January 1792
A few months before his death Mozart received a letter without a signature, requesting him to write a Requiem, and to ask for it what he wanted. As this task did not appeal to him at all, he thought, "I will ask so much that the amateur will be sure to give it up." On the next day a servant came to collect an answer. Mozart wrote to the unknown man that he could not write it for fewer than 60 ducats, and then not for 2 or 3 months. The servant returned, brought 30 ducats at once, said he would call again in 3 months, and if the Mass were ready, would hand over the other half of the money directly. So Mozart had to write, which he often did with tears in his eyes, constantly saying: "I fear I am writing my own Requiem"; he completed it a few days before his death. When his death was known, the servant called again and brought the remaining 30 ducats, did not ask for the Requiem, and since then there has been no further request for it. It will in fact be performed in St Michael's Church in his memory when it has been copied.
from the excellent "documentary bibliography" by Otto Erich Deutsch that I blogged before (who knows when, exactly)...O.E.D. writes "This early report on the Requiem does not in detail accord with fact, but it is of historical interest."
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