Why this exists
A large work runs for an hour in a language you do not speak, with nothing explained. Someone hearing it for the first time catches the general mood - something grand and sad - but the words stay closed, and with them what the music is actually about.
It takes very little: understanding the words being sung right now, hearing what each instrument of the orchestra is playing (why, say, the trombone comes in at exactly this point), and knowing what the composer meant to convey with it.
There are three works here now: Mozart's Requiem, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Chopin's First Piano Concerto. You can start with any of them. If you are not sure, play the Introitus, the first movement of the Requiem: it lasts about four minutes, and with the translation before your eyes it is clear at once what the choir is singing about.
What is here already
Each work has its own movement pages and its own sections. Concert mode and the concert map are shared.
Vivaldi · 1725 · twelve movementsOpen the work - Sonnets
For each season Vivaldi printed a sonnet. Its lines, with a translation, stand next to the music they describe and light up as it plays.
- The stage
On the stage are the soloist and the strings: each group lights up as it comes in.
- The 1725 score
No manuscript survives, so here are pages of the first edition with explanations: the lines of the sonnets are printed right above the notes.
- Guess by ear
Nine excerpts: your answer first - what the music depicts - then the marking from the score.
- The work's path
Three hundred years on a map: from a printing house in Amsterdam in 1725 to today.
Mozart · 1791 · fourteen movementsOpen the work - Text
The Latin text with a translation, a highlight on whatever is sounding right now, and notes on what to listen for.
- The stage
A virtual stage with choir and orchestra: each group lights up as it comes in. You can see exactly who is making the sound you hear.
- The manuscript
Thirteen pages of the autograph with explanations, including the leaf where the notes written in Mozart's hand come to an end.
- Map of feelings
Some movements sound like judgement, others like mercy; some are dark, others full of light. On the map we have summed up how most listeners hear each of them. But you can share what you felt yourself, while listening or afterwards.
- Myth or fact, and 1791
Twenty-five stories still told about the Requiem: your answer first, then the explanation with its source. And the year 1791 month by month: what Mozart wrote besides the Requiem, and what happened to the work after his death.
Chopin · 1830 · three movementsOpen the work - Stage
On the stage the whole orchestra is before us, as in a hall. Those who are playing now stand in colour and in warm light, the rest fade - so we can see who carries the music at this moment. In front is the piano, and above its keys we see the notes that are sounding now. A tap on a group tells what the instrument is and what it does in this movement.
- Piano on full screen
The orchestra above, and below, over the piano keys, rise the notes that sound in the recording.
- Hear this
Under each movement - passages with a note on what to listen for: how the orchestra plays alone for four minutes, where the violins come in with mutes.
- Illustrations
The 1880 score, a German newspaper review of 1834 and Warsaw of those years in paintings and engravings.
- Concert mode
When you listen to a work live or on a recording, turn on concert mode: your phone listens to the music and shows the line that is sounding right now, together with its translation.
- Concert map
Concerts our listeners have been to, with photos and stories, and announcements of those ahead. Been to a concert? Tell us and it will appear on the map.
How it is made
There are no ads here and nothing to install: open a movement on your phone or computer and listen. The recording, the text with its translation and the stage with the musicians are all on one page.
The texts are written and checked by the author of the project: every fact has a source, and claims that cannot be proven are marked as such. The movement illustrations are works of imagination, not historical paintings.
The project is non-commercial. When new works appear, they will be on the same terms: open and free.
Where the material comes from
- Recording
A freely available concert performance from 2000, under a licence that allows use as long as the performers are credited. The performers, place, year and licence are below, and the same is behind the “i” button next to the player.
- Score
The score comes from the Mutopia Project, an open library of music newly typeset from editions already in the public domain (CC BY-SA 3.0). It also shows over which bars the lines of the sonnets stand.
- The 1725 edition
The first edition, printed in Amsterdam: the copy held by Uppsala University Library, digitised and released into the public domain. Vivaldi's own manuscript does not survive.
- Sonnets
The Italian text of the sonnets comes from the same 1725 edition and is public domain. Who wrote them is not known. The Ukrainian and English translations are our own, literal.
- Books
For anyone who wants to read further: Paul Everett, Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8 (1996); Michael Talbot, Vivaldi (Master Musicians series).
Recording: John Harrison, Wichita State University Chamber Players, Robert Turizziani. Wiedemann Recital Hall, Wichita State University, 2000. John Harrison, Wichita State University Chamber Players · CC BY-SA 4.0, CC-BY-SA-4.0
- Recording
A freely available performance under a licence that allows non-commercial use. The performers, place, year and licence are below, and the same is behind the “i” button next to the player.
- Score
The full score and vocal parts come from IMSLP, an open library of music that is already in the public domain.
- Manuscript
Austrian National Library, Mus.Hs. 17561: two volumes, digital copies used with credit to the source. Individual pages and photographs are also on Wikimedia Commons.
- Text
The Latin liturgical text is public domain. The Ukrainian and English translations are our own, literal, made for understanding rather than for singing.
- History of the work
Who wrote what, how the manuscript was split up and brought back together, where and when the Requiem was performed - we check all this against the critical report to the New Mozart Edition (2007). It is the most detailed description of the manuscript and the early sources, prepared by scholars of the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. The Foundation also hosts the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's works, where the number K. 626 comes from.
- Letters and documents
Mozart's letters and the documents of his time are in the Mozarteum Foundation's digital edition, open for non-commercial use.
- Books
For anyone who wants to read further: Christoph Wolff, Mozart's Requiem: Historical and Analytical Studies, Documents, Score (1994); Simon P. Keefe, Mozart's Requiem: Reception, Work, Completion (2012); H. C. Robbins Landon, 1791: Mozart's Last Year (1988).
Recording: Chœur des Marais, Orchestre de chambre lyonnais, Jacques Berthelon. Théâtre de Villefranche-sur-Saône, 1998. © Chœur des Marais, Villefranche sur Saône, Fr, CC-BY-NC-4.0
- Recording
A concert of 10 September 2022 in Osaka, published on the pianist's YouTube channel under a licence that allows use with credit to the performers. Performers, place, year and licence are below; the same is behind the “i” button by the player.
- Notes
The notes that light up on the keys come from a transcription of the concerto shared on MuseScore, which we aligned with the recording note by note. Chopin's music itself is in the public domain.
- Editions and a newspaper
The 1880 score from the Breitkopf & Härtel complete edition and Kistner's Leipzig edition with a review in the «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» of 1834 - copies from the University of Toronto and the Boston Public Library, public domain.
- Letters
Chopin's letters of 1830 - from the Polish originals on the website of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (text after Sydow's 1955 edition). The Ukrainian and English translations are our own.
- Pictures
Warsaw of those years - paintings and engravings from the National Library of Poland (Polona) and the National Museum in Warsaw, public domain. The movement paintings and Warsaw in four times of day were made for the site.
- Books
For further reading: John Rink, «Chopin: The Piano Concertos» (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Recording: Hayato Sumino, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), Marin Alsop. The Symphony Hall, Osaka, 2022. Hayato Sumino, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop · CC BY 3.0, CC-BY-3.0
- What we made
The translations, explanations, line timings, concert mode and the site's code were made for HearClosely, and the rights to them belong to the project. If you would like to use any of it elsewhere, write to us.
Site texts: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Latin text: public domain.
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Where to next
- 01Mozart's RequiemA prayer for those who cannot be brought back. Mozart's last work: he did not live to finish it, and his pupil did.
- 02Vivaldi's Four SeasonsA year from the first flowers under the snow to a hard winter. Each season has a sonnet, and its lines are printed right in the score.
- 03Chopin's First Piano ConcertoThe farewell music of a twenty-year-old Chopin. We follow the piano as it talks with the orchestra, and read his letters from those very days.