The word Lacrimosa means ‘weeping’ in Latin, and in this movement of Mozart’s Requiem, the music almost seems to mimic the human act of crying. Waves of painful dissonance bubble up and spill over into the undercurrent of sadness.

Here’s two interesting takes:

First, a performance led by former Chicago Symphony director Georg Solti in 1991, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death:

Second, an ingenious dramatization of the same music. Here, a drawing is used to represent the emotional spirit of each underlying harmony of the music. The Roman numerals above the drawings show the specific harmonic function. When the harmony changes, so does the picture. Soon, a story begins to unfold:

SCORE: Mozart Requiem at IMSLP