The Requiem in D minor, WAB 39, is a Missa pro defunctis composed by Anton Bruckner in 1849. History The Requiem in D minor, a setting of the Missa pro defunctis for mixed choir, vocal soloists, three trombones, one horn, strings and organ with figured bass, was composed by Bruckner in memory of Franz Sailer, the notary of the St. Florian Monastery, who bequeathed Bruckner a Bösendorfer piano. The Requiem was premiered on 15 September 1849 in the St. Florian Monastery, a year after Sailer's death. A second performance occurred on 11 December 1849 in the Abbey of Kremsmünster. The manuscript is archived in the St. Florian Monastery. In 1892, Bruckner revised the score and gave it to Franz Bayer. Bayer performed it on 4 December 1895 in Steyr for the funerals of parish priest Johann Evangelist Aichinger. The Österreichische Nationalbibliothek acquired the revised score from Bayer's widow in 1923. Setting Introit: Requiem – Andante, D minor Sequence: Dies irae – Allegro, D minor Offertorium Domine – Andante, F major Hostias – Adagio, B-flat major: Chorale by divided man voices and trombones Quam olim – Con spirito, F minor: Double fugue, ending in F major Sanctus – Andante, D minor Benedictus – Andante, B-flat major - a solo horn replaces the bass trombone Agnus Dei and Communion Agnus Dei – Adagio, D minor Requiem – Adagio, D minor: Chorale a cappella Cum sanctis – Alla breve, D minor, ending in D major Total duration: about 37 minutes The Requiem is most likely Bruckner's "first truly large-scale composition and probably his first significant work." "[It] is amazing what he achieved, especially if we look at the great double fugue of the Quam olim Abrahae, written at least six years before he even commenced his thorough contrapuntal studies with Simon Sechter!" "The Requiem was Bruckner's first larger-scale composition and also his first work with orchestra. [When reviewing it in 1892,] as a highly self-critical seventy-year-old, Bruckner passed judgement on the work as follows: ('It is not bad!')." There is clear influence of Mozart throughout the work. [There] are many passages reminiscent of what was even then, in 1848/49, a past age (the very opening points irresistibly to Mozart's Requiem in the same key), and though the very inclusion of a figured bass for organ continuo strikes one as backward looking, there are already several flashes of the later, great Bruckner to come.[Despite