Mozart composed Ave Verum Corpus just six months before he died. In June 1791, his wife Constanze was pregnant with their sixth child. As was her habit when pregnant, she left Vienna to take the waters at the nearby spa in Baden. Mozart joined her a few days later and composed this short motet for an old friend – the music director of a tiny church in the town, who had looked after Constanze during her frequent trips to Baden.
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Sacred Music for a Sacred Space 2011 Program Notes
Throughout his life, Healey Willan claimed he was born with the ability to read music. As a choir boy in England, he studied singing, piano, organ, harmony and counterpoint and by the age of eleven was conducting choir practices. Willan continued on the path of a church musician in London, delighted by his natural gift for music.
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