☰ Ostinato

Johann Adolf Hasse, Kapellmeister at the Saxon-Polish court in Dresden, composed the Requiem in C for the ceremonial exequies of the deceased Elector Frederic August II in November 1763 in the Catholic Hofkirche in Dresden. With this work, he composed a monument in music to his long-standing, generous employer, who was also King of Poland under the name August III: passionate choral movements, echoes of historic compositional styles, expressive vocal solos and arias undeniably revealing Hasse the opera composer, plus trumpets and timpani in the orchestra all these are the ingredients of a "royal" Requiem Mass in the style of a Missa solemnis.