The Autograph At The 1958 World's Fair
The autograph of the Requiem was placed on display at the World's Fair in 1958 in Brussels. At some point during the fair, someone was able to gain access to the manuscript, tearing off the bottom right-hand corner of the second to last page (folio 99r/45r), containing the words "Quam olim d: C:" (an instruction that the "Quam olim" fugue of the Domine Jesu was to be repeated "da capo", at the end of the Hostias). As of 2012 the perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment has not been recovered.
If the most common authorship theory is true, then "Quam olim d: C:" might very well be the last words Mozart wrote before he died. It is probable that whoever stole the fragment believed that to be the case.
However, according to papers in the estate of Dr. Leopold Nowak (who, as head of the music collection of the Austrian National Library, was in charge of the manuscript's transport to Brussels) it is obvious that there is absolutely no proof that the damage of the manuscript actually took place during the World's Fair in Brussels. The state of the autograph was not examined before the exhibition and the loss of the corner of the page in question might well have taken place long before 1958.
Read more about this topic: Requiem (Mozart)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or fair:
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“If I wished to see a mountain or other scenery under the most favorable auspices, I would go to it in foul weather, so as to be there when it cleared up; we are then in the most suitable mood, and nature is most fresh and inspiring. There is no serenity so fair as that which is just established in a tearful eye.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)