Influences
Mozart esteemed Handel and in 1789 he was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten to rearrange Messiah. This work likely influenced the composition of Mozart's Requiem; the Kyrie is probably based on the And with his stripes we are healed chorus from Handel's Messiah (HWV 56), since the fugato, in which Handel was a master, is the same, with only slight variations by adding ornaments on melismata.
Some believe that the Introitus was inspired by Handel's Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline (HWV 264), and some have also remarked that the Confutatis may have been inspired by Sinfonia Venezia by Pasquale Anfossi. Another possible influence may be Michael Haydn's Requiem in C minor; as the Introitus sounds rather similar to Mozart's.
Read more about this topic: Requiem (Mozart)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Max Lerner (b. 1902)