Ave Verum Corpus, K 618

Ave Verum Corpus, K 618, motet (vocal musical setting of a sacred text) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart based on a Roman Catholic eucharistic text. The piece was composed in the summer of 1791, half a year before the composer’s death and eight years after Mozart had last completed a piece of sacred music. The gentle and serene Ave Verum Corpus was written for Anton Stoll, choirmaster in the town of Baden, where Mozart’s wife, Constanze, often visited the spa. Unlike the dramatic and famously unfinished Requiem in D Minor, K 626, on which Mozart was working at the same time, Ave Verum Corpus is of humble mien and perfectly suited to the small-town choir for which it was intended.