Gottfried Weber, Abbe Stadler and the Requiem.

[Agnes Selby]

There lived in Darmstadt a gentleman by the name of Dr. Gottfried Weber.
(No relation to Constanze Mozart). Gottfried Weber had studied Law and worked as a judge. Later he became Attorney-General in Darmstadt. He was an amateur musician and was the editor of the periodical "Cacilia, A Journal for the Musical Public, Edited By A Consortium Of Scholars, Connoisseurs Of The Arts And Artists" which was published in Mainz. Weber was the sole member of this noble Consortium.

In August 1825, Dr. Gottfried Weber found that subscriptions to "Cacilia" were diminishing despite his frequent and sensational attacks on Beethoven, Meyerbeer and Goethe. The publishers in Mainz decided to put pressure on Weber to improve the periodical's circulation. There is a letter extant addressed to Carl Maria von Weber, asking him to join the "consortium" but Carl Maria von Weber declined the offer.

With the publishers, Schott, in Mainz, breathing down Weber's neck, a quick solution had to be found and Weber suddenly remembered the controversy regarding the authorship of Mozart's "Requiem". Having composed a requiem of his own, which he considered far superior to Mozart's work, he felt equipped
to uncover the mystery of its authorship. He inquired from the director of the court Library, Count von Dietrichstein, whether Mozart's manuscrip used for the publication of the "Requiem" by Breitkopf & Hartel was still available, and if so, in whose possession it was. Dietrichstein's assistant, Ignaz von Mosel, redirected the inquiry to Abbe Maximilian Stadler whom he considered the most competent person to answer Weber's query. Abbe Stadler replied that a copy completed by Sussmmayr had been used in the preparation of the "Requiem" for publication.

Disregarding this, Weber went ahead and published an article claiming that of
all the Mozart compositions none had received as much adulation as his "Requiem", although this work could not be counted among genuine works. After a number of dubious premises, Weber came to the conclusion that the commissioner of the "Requiem" was given Mozart's original composition and that Sussmayr later patched together a second requiem and that this was then published by Breitkopf & Hartel. According to Weber, the genuine "Requiem" had not yet been discovered.

The publisher, Andre, announced in January 1826 that in order to clear up the controversy begun by Weber's article he intended to publish a copy of the "Requiem" which he himself possessed, in which the letters "M" and "S"
denoted the parts written by Mozart and Sussmayr, originally prepared by Abbe Stadler when he compared Count Walsegg's copy with Constanze's prior to its being published by Breitkopf & Hartel, (the one which was later sold to Andre with all of Mozart's manuscripts in 1800). Andre also mentioned that Constanze had asked him in a letter to claify this matter.

Andre announced to a surprised readership that he would show that the parts of the "Requiem" composed by Mozart were in fact composed at a much earlier date and re-used by Mozart in 1791. Andre also disputed the traditional
belief that Mozart continued to work on the Requiem on his death-bed.
In his preface to the "Requiem", Andre mentioned a certain J. Zawrzel, oboist in the Opera Orchestra in Amsterdam, who had been employed by Count Walsegg and had seen the completed "Requiem", up to the Sanctus, in August 1791. Zawrzel particularly remembered the basset horns and had called Count Walsegg's attention to the fact that it would not be possible to get hold of these instruments in Wiener Neustadt. Zawrzel convinced Andre that the first performance of the "Requiem" conducted by Count Walsegg took place in September 1791, and therefore Mozart could not have worked on it during his terminal illness. Thus matters concerning the "Requiem" became more and more complicated.

Andre planned to publish the new edition of Mozart's "Requiem" on a subscription basis and proposed to give the profit to Nannerl. Instead, on January 31, 1826, Nannerl requested Andre to divide the profits from the publication between Mozart's two sons and Andre inserted an advertisement to this effect in the periodical "Cacilia".

The controversy regarding the authorship of the "Requiem" continued with the publication in Vienna early in 1826 of a reply by Abbe Stadler dedicated to "all true Mozart lovers". In it Stadler stated categorically that the "Requiem" was written by Mozart and completed by Sussmayr along the lines designated by Mozart. Stadler restated this argunment to Ignaz von Mosel dated March 29, 1826, informing him that he had been able to to examine the manuscript, in Mozart's own handwriting, part of which was in Eybler's possession (the Domine Quam olim, Hostias) He had also examined another segment, (the Dies Irae and the Lacrymosa) which he recently received as a present.

In a letter to Constanze on March 14, 1827, Stadler wrote that Weber had published a reply to his defence of the Requiem and that he would be obliged to answer these new accusations. Abbe Stadler also stated that Weber had found an ally in Andre who was claiming that he had received letters and information from Constanze from which one could deduce that Mozart did not write the Requiem just prior to his death but long before. Weber had used Andre's claim in his argument that the published "Requiem" is of a lower standard than one would expect of Mozart.

The news imparted to her by Abbe Stadler greatly upset Constanze and she wrote to him on May 31. 1827:

"... Now I cannot but let you and all friends of Mozart know the true story of the "Requiem, which is as follows: That Mozart had never started work on another "Requiem" and he often told me that this work gave him the greatest pleasure. because this (sacred music) was his favourite field...
He was certainly very diligent; as he felt weaker Sussmayr had to sing with him often what was written and that is how Sussmayr received formal tuition from Mozart. And I still hear Mozart often saying to Sussmayr: "Hey- the oxen
are again stuck on the hill; you are far from understanding this". He then took the quill and wrote the main themes which were too difficult for Sussmayr.
....If Herr Andre says that he received letters and other information from me, from which it could be deduced that Mozart did not write this work just before his death but had written it long before, what a coarse lie".

Andre published the "Requiem" based on the copy which he had received from Constanze in 1801. He added an introduction in which he claimed that papers supplied to him by Constanze seemed to purport that Mozart had written the "Requiem" some years earlier.

Abbe Stadler wrote to Constanze on July 4, 1827.
"...What I was afraid of has actually happened. Mr. Andre has published Mozart's "Requiem" as he says, according to the sample you have sent him and he accompanied it with a foreword. Mr. Weber is triumphant and has stated in Cacelia No. 23, that his claims regarding the falseness of Mozart's "Requiem" had been proven. Abbe Stadler continued by stating that he had access to the original manuscript in his own and Eybler's possession. He published his reply offering these as proof to support his own claim of Mozart's authorship.

It appears that Abbe Stadler succeeded, as the controversy slowly died down after the publication of his article. Weber may or may not have improved the circulation of his periodical. Soon he found other interesting and sensational topics, realizing that the discussion about the "Requiem" was becoming tedious to his readers.

On November 11, 1827 Count Walsegg died at Stuppach Castle. He was sixty-four years old and he carried to his grave the secret part he had played in the history of the "Requiem". His large library of manuscript music was scattered to the winds. It would take another ten years before Mozart's "Requiem" would once again emerge to create a minor storm.

copyright Agnes Selby. (from "Constanze Mozart's Beloved').