Previous posts for July 22nd are here: Bobby Sherman (2019), Luigi Arditi (2020), and Franz Xaver Süssmayr; Alan Menken (2021)
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Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766 – September 17, 1803) was an Austrian composer and conductor, remembered largely for his completion of the Mozart Requiem.
NB. In fact, we do not know when he was born, but the site I use
(mistakenly) lists him today, and he has to be celebrated sometime, so I
went with it.
Unfinished Business
The completed score, initially by Mozart but largely finished by Süssmayr, was then dispatched to Count Walsegg complete with a counterfeited signature of Mozart and dated 1792. Despite the controversy over how much of the music is actually Mozart's, the commonly performed Süssmayr version has become widely accepted by the public. – adapted from Wikipedia, s.v. “Requiem (Mozart)”
When Mozart’s work was left undone,
F. X. Süssmayr was the one
Who got the pages Mozart left,
And though he was, of course, bereft,
He took those sketches and he finished them,
Or else, as some would say, diminished them.
Has history, being harsh, mistreated
Poor old Süssmayr who completed
Mozart’s work, but was defeated?
The charitably inclined suggest
That though he failed, he tried his best,
And earned a place among the bless’d.
No matter how his work’s assessed.
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