Winter 2012 Program notes:

Repertoire: W.A. Mozart's Requiem and his early work Veni Sancte Spiritus

The Composer:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The Compositions:

Requiem, K. 626

Veni Sancte Spiritus, K. 47
—While the exact date of this early composition is not definitively known, the Mozart ausgabe edition (scholarly, collected works) gives it as 1768, which would mean that Mozart was 12 years old when he wrote it. This four-minute piece shows the influence of J.C. Bach (the “London” Bach—that is, the composer/son of J.S. Bach who worked primarily in London), one of the major composers of the period that preceded the high Classical period dominated by Mozart and Haydn, who young Mozart met in England during the years he was touring as a child prodigy on the keyboard.