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In preparation for Tenebrae, the Senior Choir is rehearsing 'Lacrimosa' from the Requiem by Mozart. It is not an easy piece, and all four voice parts are challenged in terms of vocal range and the vocal writing. Mozart does not offer any concessions to a student choir - you either meet him on his terms, or not at all.
The 'Lacrimosa' has a tragic history -as Mozart completed only the first eight measures of the piece before dying. This was on December 5, 1791, two months before his thirty-sixth birthday. Those eight measures are the last notes he wrote in his own hand-writing. The 'Lacrimosa' was then finished by Franz Sussmayr - Mozart's committed friend, student and disciple. He wrote the rest of the movement modeling it on Mozart's initial theme. . Later, at the urging of Mozart's wife, Constanza, Sussmayr went on to complete all the remaining movements of the Requiem. Constanza was naturally anxious to collect the commission that Mozart had been promised. Since Sussmayr's own death, there have been many other attempts by music scholars to complete the Requiem -and this has evolved naturally into different camps - each with their own ideas as to how the work should conclude. However, the version that we hear most often is that of Sussmayr - who, for a dear departed friend, wrote what he could in memory of that genius. Malcolm V. Edwards
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Malcolm EdwardsMalcolm Edwards was born in Halifax, England and emigrated to Canada in 1967. He is a graduate of Sheffield College of Education (UK), Trinity College of Music, London, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Montana and has done further graduate work at the University of Northern Colorado. He taught music in junior and senior high school for twelve years in southern Alberta before joining the University of Calgary as a Professor of Music Education in 1980. He retired from the university after thirty-one years of service in 2011. In the community he was affiliated with the Youth Singers of Calgary for 21 years directing the Act Three and Senior divisions. In his retirement, he is now employed as an Adjunct Professor of Music at St Mary’s University, as the Artistic Director of the Calgary Men’s Chorus and as the Senior Choir Director at St John’s Choir Schola. He has held leadership positions within the Alberta Choral Federation, the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, served on the Board of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is active as a choral adjudicator and workshop leader in schools and churches. He is the recipient of two awards from the Provincial Federation – one in recognition of advocacy in arts education and the second in recognition of exemplary service to choral music within the Province of Alberta. In 2004 he received recognition from the national body (ACCC) for twenty-five years of service to the Canadian choral community. Archives
January 2026
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