Ave Verum Corpus - Mozart

A wonderful piece of music composed only months before Mozart died

So why did he compose it?

Mozart's wife Constanze was pregnant and not well.  Anton Stoll, a dear friend of the Mozart family, arranged for Constanze to convalesce in the springs of Baden near Vienna.  Mozart visited his wife there in June 1791 and out of gratitude for his kindness composed Ave Verum Corpus for his friend Anton.

The words are for the Feast of Corpus Christi and on 23 June 1791 Anton Stoll (choirmaster at his local parish) conducted it's first performance in church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

This beautiful composition is only a brief 46 bars, yet every note is carefully chosen and a wonderful expression of the words.

It is no wonder this has become one of the most famous of his choral works.

Mozart died himself only six months later.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine
Cujus latus perforatum,
Unda fluxit sanguine.
Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine:
O Dulcis, O pie
O Jesu fili Mariae
miserere mei. Amen.

Hail true body, born of the Virgin Mary.
Truly suffering, was sacrificed on the cross for mankind,
From whose pierced side
flowed blood,
Be for us a foretaste in the final judgment.
O sweet, O merciful,
O Jesus, Son of Mary,
Have mercy on me. Amen

Here is a classic recording of the work conducted by maestro Leonard Bernstein