Tuba mirum: lyrics and translation
- Tuba mirum spargens sonumThe trumpet, scattering a wondrous soundThe trombone plays alone, with no other instruments. In church music its voice meant a call from the other world - it is the trombone that summons everyone to the Judgement. From here it and the bass answer each other in turn.
- per sepulchra regionum,through the graves of every land,
- coget omnes ante thronum.will gather all before the throne.
- Mors stupebit et natura,Death will be stunned, and nature,Tenor. Each new voice enters higher than the one before and sounds together with it for a moment, so the singing is never broken.
- cum resurget creatura,when the creature rises again
- judicanti responsura.to answer the Judge.
- Liber scriptus proferetur,A written book will be brought forth,
- in quo totum continetur,in which everything is contained,
- unde mundus judicetur.by which the world shall be judged.
- Judex ergo cum sedebit,So when the Judge takes his seat,Alto.
- quidquid latet apparebit,whatever is hidden will appear,
- nil inultum remanebit.nothing will remain unpunished.
- Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?What shall I, wretched, say then?Soprano. Here the text speaks for one person for the first time: "What shall I, wretched, say then?" Until now it was about the whole world.
- Quem patronum rogaturus,Whom shall I ask to defend me,
- cum vix justus sit securus?when even the just are scarcely safe?All four together.
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Manuscript: the trombone solo in the Tuba mirum
Leaf 70 of the working score, one of the best-known pages of the manuscript. Mozart labelled a staff 'Trombone Solo' and wrote out the trombone itself and the bass singing 'Tuba mirum spargens sonum'.
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About
A trombone solo with no accompaniment, then four soloists in turn: bass, tenor, alto, soprano. Until now the text has spoken about everyone - the world, the dead, the Judgement. At the end of this movement one person speaks about themselves for the first time: "What shall I, wretched, say then?"
The trombone plays alone, through the notes of a chord, and the bass answers with the same theme. Then the word passes in turn to the tenor, alto and soprano: the voices overlap for a moment, and each one sounds higher and more anxious than the last. At 'Quid sum miser' an 'I' speaks for the first time, and at the end all four sing together, quietly and composed.
Worth knowing
In the 18th century trombones were heard mostly in church and in supernatural scenes, such as the statue of the Commendatore in 'Don Giovanni'. For listeners of the time they meant a voice from another world, not horror.
The trombone solo from the Tuba mirum is one of the best known in the repertoire and is played at almost every orchestral trombone audition.
The soloists enter from the lowest voice to the highest: bass, tenor, alto, soprano. The order is not accidental: the sound grows brighter along with the voices, while the text moves from a trumpet over the graves to one person's question about themselves. All four sing together only in the last lines - where everyone will have to answer.
At "Quid sum miser", "what shall I, wretch, say", the sequence says "I" for the first time. From here the text speaks not of the world but of one person.
The first edition of the Requiem came out in Leipzig in 1800, with German words under the Latin. The copyist it was printed from slipped a line, so the trombone solo there breaks off at the fifth bar and the rest is given to the bassoon.
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