76. Requiem

Puccini wrote the piece at the wish of his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, for a memorial service on the fourth anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death (on 27 January 1905). At the end of this mass, it was sung by the chorus of La Scala.Note: *See the report of that performance in Musica e Musicisti of February 1905, p. 60-II, also published in English in Kaye 1987, p. 229. This remained the only performance of this very brief Requiem in Puccini’s lifetime, and the piece remained unpublished until 1976. It is a little-known fact that the Requiem was also performed on the occasion of a memorial ceremony for Puccini on 29 December 1924, one month after his death, at the Milan conservatory by the student chorus directed by Romeo Bartoli.Note: *The program of that concert, the rest of which was conducted by Arturo Toscanini, contained orchestral music from Le Villi (60) and Manon Lescaut (64)(see Barblan 1972, p. 237).Magri 1974 asserts that the Requiem was not only finished and dated on 14 January 1905, but was also completely composed that day. In any event, the autograph manuscript (76.B.1) appears to have been written in one sitting. Since it bears numerous corrections, it does not constitute what would be termed as a fair copy.