Requiem, K. 626

SATB

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I will be singing this in December; I usually buy my own copy of the score so that I can write in it. A beautiful piece of music, but difficult for many amateur singers to learn.

This is a perfect rendition of the Requiem.

This is the standard piano/vocal edition that many of us have used over the years, the same edition as what has become the standard version of this astounding work. (Since Mozart didn't complete this himself, there are a few variants.) The text and notes are clear and easy...

to read. At these prices, you should own at least five so you can have a sing-along...

How could this be anything but perfect? Schirmers editions are always my favorite to sing from by far. They are clear,easy to read, and make it easy to learn even the hardest movement.As a very experienced choral singer,singing from a bad score is a nightmare!

Schirmer/Hal Leonard has reprinted the piano reduction by Friedrich Brissler (1818-1893) - originally issued by C. F. Peters around 1880). An English translation of the Latin text from the Pius X School of Liturgical Music is included as frontmatter. They also changed several typographical elements in the score itself...

, and translated some of the original German instrumental cues appearing in the piano part into English. It's the printing that I take issue with, though. The folks at Schirmer/Hal Leonard have continued an evil practice one sees all too often in music scores - reprinting from the last copy on the shelf. As a result of this practice, this score looks like a seventeenth-generation photocopy. It's hard to read, and their habit of printing on thin, glaring white paper just makes it worse! It's challenging enough to learn to sing Mozart's sublime music without having to deal with blurry pages put out by a tenth-rate print shop! Shame on you!