Hermann Kretzschmar[81] says that ‘between Mozart’s last mass and his "Requiem" there lies a whole lifetime,’ and indeed this noble work, the completion of which was cut off by the master’s death, is considered one of the great choral compositions of all time. Doubtless its wide appeal is due somewhat to the pathetic and romantic circumstances surrounding the period of its composition. One never thinks of it without recalling the mysterious, long black figure of the stranger who commissioned Mozart to write it, and the apprehension of the sick and discouraged composer and his pathetic desire to live to see its completion. The mysterious stranger was later revealed as Count Franz von Walsegg of Ruppach, who was possessed with the idea of posing as a composer and who desired to perform a Requiem in memory of his wife who had died a short time before. It was his plan, which he later carried out, to let this Requiem be known as his own. Mozart died on Dec. 5, 1791, before completing this work, which occupied his thoughts up to his last conscious moments. His widow, who was most anxious to have the ‘Requiem’ ready for delivery on the day that it was due, commissioned Süssmayer to complete the work. Süssmayer was a composer of some repute and, as a close friend and a pupil of Mozart, was intimately acquainted with the composer’s ideas regarding the ‘Requiem’; then, too, his handwriting was so much like Mozart’s that the widow was the more ready to entrust the completion of the task to him, since he could preserve the external resemblance to the fragments. So successful was Süssmayer in writing in his master’s style that for many years the _Benedictus_, which was entirely his own work, was considered the gem of the whole. The parts that were written in Mozart’s own hand were the _Requiem_ and the _Kyrie_ complete, the voice parts, organ and part of the accompaniment of _Dies iræ_ (68 measures); _Tuba mirum_ (62); _Rex tremendæ_ (22); _Recordare_ (130); _Confutatis_ (40); _Lacrymosa_ (8); _Domine_ (78); and _Hostias_ (54). [Illustration: Mozart rehearsing his Requiem (shortly before his death)] _Painting by Munkacsy_