The Requiem in B flat major is Johann Michael Haydn’s second setting of the liturgical text of the Mass of the dead (another Requiem, MH 599, has since been identified as the work of Father Georg Pasterwiz) and it is also his last work, his “Opus ultimum.” On commission from Empress Maria Theresia he began the composition in 1805, but due to a serious illness he made only slow progress with the work. Like W. A. Mozart, he could not complete this Requiem. In 1839 Father Gunther Kronecker, Benedictine Father in the monastery of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria, completed the torso “in the spirit and style” of Haydn. Kronecker’s melodic writing ranges from a lyrical to a folk-song-like character. In harmonic development he shows himself to be a composer of the Viennese Biedermeier era, strongly influenced by Franz Schubert.
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Composer
Johann Michael Haydn
| 1737-1806Johann Michael Haydn worked at the renowned ecclesiastical princely court in Salzburg from 1763. Stylistically, he bridged the gap between the early classical period and the Biedermeier period during his 43 years there. In accordance with his official duties, Haydn contributed to practically all the genres cultivated in the Catholic liturgy: Haydn's church music is characterised by his knowledge of the liturgical function and the musical interpretation of religious texts. Johann Michael Haydn was initially regarded by his contemporaries as equal to Joseph Haydn. It was only the rapid rise of his elder brother to become the most important instrumental composer of the time that pushed Johann Michael Haydn into the shadows, from which the joy of musical discovery in recent years has increasingly brought him out. Personal details