Ave verum corpus (Mozart)

Ave verum corpus (Hail, true body) is a motet in D major (K. 618), composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus" in 1791. Mozart wrote it for Anton Stoll, a friend of Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Stoll was the musical coordinator in the parish of Baden bei Wien, near Vienna.[1] This setting of the Ave verum corpus text was composed to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi; the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. It is only forty-six bars long and is scored for SATB choir, string instruments, and organ. Mozart's manuscript contains minimal directions, with only a single sotto voce at the beginning.

Mozart composed the motet while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden.[2] It was less than six months before Mozart's death. The motet foreshadows "aspects of the Requiem such as declamatory gesture, textures, and integration of forward- and backward-looking stylistic elements."[3]

Franz Liszt quotes Mozart's motet in the piano piece Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine.[4] Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky incorporates an orchestration of Liszt's transcription in his fourth orchestral suite, Mozartiana, Op. 61.[5]

Media
Ave verum corpus
Performed by the Senftenberg Orchestra and Chorus
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References

  1. ↑ p. 351, Heartz (2009) Daniel. New York. Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven: 1781–1802 W. W. Norton & Co.
  2. ↑ p. 372, Küster, Whittall (1996) Konrad, Mary. Oxford Mozart: a Musical Biography Oxford University Press
  3. ↑ p. 33, Wolff (1998) Christoph. Berkeley, California Mozart's Requiem: Historical and Analytical Studies, Documents, Score University of California Press. Whittall (translator) Mary
  4. ↑ pp. 42–43, Walker (1996) Alan. Ithaca, New York Franz Liszt: The Final Years 1861–1886 Cornell University Press
  5. ↑ p. 115, Brown (1992) David. New York Tchaikovsky: The final years, 1885–1893 W. W. Norton & Co.

External links

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