Confutatis & Lacrimosa | Classical Musicians React to Mozart’s Darkest Masterpiece

追加: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Hey guys, welcome to PQ, where we watch and talk about music as classical musicians. And welcome to our second video of this Friday. So, as you can see for us it's definitely the same day. Uh, but we thought it would be a good idea to do um, I know I in the last video I said we're going to do two instrumental, but by the time we ended recording I remembered that this Mozart work is not actually instrumental, so I don't know why I kept saying that. So, I was wrong.

[00:00:27]It's It's Mozart Requiem, but we're not going to do the full thing. We are just going to do two of the movements, probably one of the most two of the most uh, famous movements. This request is by RF. So, thank you for your support and for your request. I think he's a big fan of classical music because his last video was also Copland. We can also link that here for you guys. But anyway, we love this piece and there is a lot of obviously history trivia about like this piece and Mozart being his last piece [music] that he composed un- uh, like unfinished before he he died. So, these two movements are Confutatis and [music] Lacrimosa. Yeah, I'm very very excited because there are some pieces in classical music that they are so so overrated and so many people knows it, but as like as a classical musician you're like it's so overrated. This Requiem from Mozart also so many non-classical musician people know it knows it, but it's at not at all overrated. It's It even in my opinion needs more credit than it already has and it's one of my all-time fav- favorite. Some of at least some of the um, movements are one of my all-time favorite um, pieces. Yeah.

[00:01:49]>> Yeah.

[00:01:51]Confutatis [music] maledictis, flammis acribus addictis, voca me benedictis, >> [music] >> oro supplex come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the sun, >> [music] >> come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the >> [music] >> Come on the sun, come on the sun, [music] come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the sun, come on the sun, >> [music] >> come on the sun, come on >> [music] [music] >> Come [music] on the >> [music] [music] >> Come on the >> [singing] [music] [music] >> Come on the >> [music] >> Let's just wait here. I know that transition is very very cool. So, we're going to go back and listen to the transition, but this was the first movement that we wanted to listen to. Um I cannot wrap my head around the drama of Mozart.

[00:04:19]Honestly, like uh even I mean, this is obviously a religious text, but like the drama that he brings almost reminds me of like operas, like his operas. Like he was uh I mean, also that era, it was very like opera was a big thing, obviously, but you can see that the influence of opera even in his instrumental work. If you're for for example, playing like a piano sonata or like a piano trio, you always have to think about the dances, the characters of the different operas, the singings. And it's obvious that even with like a work like this, uh he still has that with the instruments and with like all the drama, all the harmonies, that sometimes it's just so tense, but then suddenly they open up. It's just almost like a actually not almost, it's like a storytelling to me. Even knowing the text and the meaning of it, it's still like acts like it like a full story that you're hearing. Well, I have so much to say, but I mean, in classical pieces, you have so much to say and so much to analyze, but you also don't want to go so deep because it's it's going to the harmony and theory and stuff.

[00:05:33]But this movement, as you could hear, was containing like two parts. One part which was more like angry or more scary or like a bad side or like a unholy side. And then the more calmer part which was singing by the by the women part. And it was more like I don't know it felt like so holy, something holy and very like bright and I don't know peaceful or something.

[00:06:08]And if you if you see the text is also like that and it's like because in Mozart era the people who had money for it would pay the composers to compose a piece for their funeral so that when they die you can you can this piece would play in their funeral and this is a requiem.

[00:06:34]And it's also famous that Mozart as you said write this somebody somebody ordered this piece and Mozart write it but he died before he could finish finish this piece and one of his students had to like finish it.

[00:06:53]And then it turned into his funeral requiem like mass requiem.

[00:06:59]And so it's about like death and the life after death and stuff. And the first part is talking about the people who are going to hell and did some bad stuff and and then the the second part which is more holy it's like yeah I I'm one of the people who is going to heaven or or something like that. So it's really also matching with the with the text that they they are saying and the the soft part is just I mean the the also the the first part for me is also like like really crazy like full of adrenaline and I really love to hear but the the second part that is becoming so soft it's like I don't know. It's exactly like it's not from the It's this sound is not coming from the earth and it's coming from somewhere above.

[00:07:53]>> It was also interesting that I mean you talked about the differences, but one more thing that is very interesting and it shows like Mozart's brilliance is that whenever the guys were singing like tenor and bass, the lines were going down most of it. So it was either stepwise or like some leaps going down and matches with the with the context of the text because it's talking about the people as you said I I don't I'm not good at Latin that much, but they looked at up the meaning that when the cursed are cast away. That's that's the text condemned to fierce flames. So that's whenever they are singing that the lines going down and it's always accompanied by that by that motif in the instruments and they're kind of like more dramatic. And then when the like the two upper voices coming the women come, it's talking about I'm one of the blessed ones. So then first of all that theme that motif is gone and then we just hear like more lyrical lines from the orchestra, but also it's mostly like stepwise not a lot of like jumps up and down. So that also like the music itself I feel like can can evoke that feeling that you're just going downhill from there, but then the good part is just staying or like not a lot of I was just looking at the music. Not a lot of leaps here. It's mostly just one note maybe a little bit like at the end toward the cadence we just go up and down a little bit. Yeah, and also one of the reasons that built more tension in the first part and more relief and like more longer and breathable atmosphere in the second part was that exactly the strings were playing in the first part very fast and like the run then then then then then then then like something really intense and like as if you you are like oh oh you you have something you know intense in you and then the second part the strings were like da ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra if you if you listen to it it's more open and more lying and more relaxed so it also helped. Yeah, exactly. Here we go. It >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [singing and music] >> Amen.

[00:11:35]Gloria [music] Gloria >> [music] >> Gloria >> [singing] [music] >> Gloria Gloria >> [music] [music] [music] >> Gloria Gloria [music] Gloria Gloria Gloria Gloria [music] Gloria Gloria [music] Gloria Gloria >> [music] >> Gloria Gloria Gloria Gloria >> [music] >> Gloria >> Um there is not there has never been a time that I've heard this piece the whole piece and I never got a goose bump.

[00:13:49]>> [snorts] [laughter] >> I always I'm like I'm in another place now after listening to it. The interesting about Mozart is that for me personally personally Mozart is not my favorite composer because I mean in there is no doubt that he was a genius and he has so many cool and like brilliant pieces but for for my character and for my taste he was most [laughter] of his pieces yeah was so bright and so happy.

[00:14:23]>> [gasps and sighs] >> Um but the thing I mean except for the late Mozart that was his more like like later works and I'm I can really imagine that if he would have died a little later and he could have like composed more pieces I would have really loved the pieces that he would compose later.

[00:14:45]Um but the thing is that Mozart has a sad part or a dark part and he has so so less pieces that they are sad or like they are like dark but when he when the in these pieces it's so like the the like when he's sad and he composes sad pieces it's like really sad and it's like oh my god how a person who is who can composes like that can also compose like be be so like in the down, like in the dark place like that. And the interesting thing about the like Lacrimosa's motif, which like da da da da this was that Mozart has a sonata, I mean he has a couple violin sonatas, violin piano sonatas, which uh respectfully I really don't like because uh as I said this not I not at all like my taste in my taste. Mhm. But he has one sonata and I played it as a teenager that he wrote it I think I mean it's I'm I'm bringing it from the back of the deepest back of my my memory. I if I remembered right he wrote it after his mother died and his girlfriend was break broke up with him or he was in a in a very bad place in his life. So this sonata is sad.

[00:16:19]And the I think it's the E minor. I'm not I'm not sure.

[00:16:24]E minor sonata but the second movement and he wrote it I think he was when he was 19 or like in 20s like so many years before this piece.

[00:16:36]And in the second movement there is a place I mean it has completely different themes and the completely different vibe but in the last seconds of this movement suddenly this exact motif comes like with the piano like da da da da da [singing] da da da like it's kind of the same.

[00:17:00]And years later in his last piece in the last movement of his last piece he brought back this motif again and this motif is like two notes but it's it feels like somebody who is taking his last breath like da da and and he has like I want to live more. I don't want to leave. I you know, it's something like that and it's like your last breath that you're like I don't know begging for living more not not leaving the the life and you're I I don't know it has so many depth and so many weight into this motive. Like Amalia has a very also special part in my heart because as a teenager I played it in the school with my violin. I mean not orchestra. I just created a like a quartet something and with the with the choir and stuff.

[00:17:57]And in in in the university my last university like years ago. I also sang it in the choir. Always it was always one of my favorite and also I played the Mozart sonata like also which has this motive. So I really like I want to say something about the music as well before wrapping this video uh because I feel like the things that you shared about like that motive being just like the capturing the maybe your last breath or like just more longing for more life but you can get it. Um [music] it's I think it comes from just those like the two note motive very short [music] but then also the way that he wrote it that is like a legato line that then you phrase it kind of the second [music] note is just a little less and then that this whole movement is based on that specially the beginning of it and then strings having that motive. I feel like it's just a perfect instrument to create that feel [music] of longing I guess. And then just going up and down and then there's just a lot of like the motifs are usually like either stepwise or not that much leap but then each motif like goes up and then goes down and it goes up. So it's just a lot of rises and falls. [music] Uh so it just creates like I don't know a grief moment, a very longing moment every time you listen to it. And I also want to point out that unlike the uh for example other movement that we listened to that the choir was kind of divided between like people go to hell, people go to heaven like the to put it like simply. This movement has more like a a choir sings all together for the most part. I'm just looking at the music maybe if not the entire time.

[00:19:54]So it just also like meaning wise because it's just talking about all humans just like [music] getting up and the judgment day. I don't know my my religious talking in English is not that great because I never learned that >> [laughter] >> here.

[00:20:09]>> [gasps] >> But anyways, talking about the judgment day when everybody like rises up. So So like the feeling of like everybody sings together again it's just I feel like a storytelling through music as well. It's just if you listen to it you just you just can feel that there is a sorrow that is shared between all the humans. So that's also like very like I feel like again genius even though Mozart only wrote eight measures of this and then he passed away. So if you look at the like the original scores of this it just ends after that eight measures and then other composers specifically his one of his students I think completed that and but it's very interesting that he had the idea of like that choir writing and then all those motifs coming and going and then touches of like timpani and then trombone just expands also that like space the harmony and and also the harmony, speaking of that, it just if you listen to it, it doesn't really get that release that easily and that fast. I'm looking at the harmony, the the score of it, it just so again, like it just prolongs and stretches that feel of look longing and at the end maybe just [music] gives you a little bit of real release here and there. So, just the music itself, if you put all the lyrics aside, I think it evokes enough feelings and like tells you the story itself. So, that's also a very interesting fact. When you listen to a lot of a lot of like compositions, but like this one in particular that he also thought through like structure-wise or the architecture of the sound itself, not just like, "Oh, I have these lyrics.

[00:21:53]I want to put it to music."

[00:21:54]>> Well, just two short things that I wanted to say, I forgot to say about that last moment, that even though the whole thing was in minor and it was so intense, but it ended with a major chord. And we all already talked about it in one of our videos that's that's called Picardy thirds.

[00:22:14]Um and it's when the whole piece is in minor and the and it ends with major.

[00:22:20]And here is one of the best uh at least meaning-wise, the best usage of this because he was saying that I will be there with the people who are going to heaven or like, you know, I will be in the good side of the people. And that major chord was was like like had this feeling that his soul went to the heaven and it's like the it's ended all like he his his soul is holy holy and nice star I don't know how to say. And another thing is that there's a movie called Amadeus from one of the very good directors and it's one of the even art history movies and it's a movie that is important because it's really really good made in the art history.

[00:23:12]I mean historically there are some facts that it's not really matching with the historical facts but it's a movie and it's a really good movie and I really really suggest you to watch it and also the last scene is the is Mozart writing the this Requiem.

[00:23:33]>> Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right, so that was a very interesting video. We hope you guys like it. I know our classical music videos [music] are not fan favorites but we hope you enjoyed it as well because we thoroughly enjoy like looking at them and we really like talking about them.

[00:23:52]Uh it feels so more familiar to us than like all these like other genres but it's it's really fun for us and thank you so much RF for suggesting this two movements of Mozart. We thoroughly enjoyed it and we hope you guys did as well. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. If you want to support us more there's a buy me a coffee link in the description and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye.

[00:24:16]>> Bye.