If the reader is not convinced by now, what more can be said? I believe I have carefully presented not only persuasive reasoning for a Christian interpretation of the Requiem but significant documentary evidence to indicate that early performers, listeners, critics, musicologists, and friends of Brahms held the same view. My argument does not depend on a single strand of evidence, a small group of questionable sources, a controversial reading of an isolated passage or two, interpretations that have no historical precedent, or mere pronouncements without corroborating support. On the contrary, my claims are firmly buttressed by multiple kinds of approaches, a substantial variety of sources, and dozens of explicit and unambiguous testimonies from contemporaneous writers. Even if the reader finds a few of my positions not totally plausible or if I have misunderstood some of the comments quoted here, that could hardly dismantle the diversity and depth of documentation I have provided.

Nonetheless, I envision that some scholars will remain skeptical. As an adage warns, “those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.” For those who have lingering questions about how a current appraisal of the Requiem that is so prevalent could suddenly appear to be unsupportable, here are a few issues to ponder as you weigh the relative merits of my explanation against those of others. Most scholars refute a biblical reading, but they have yet to present a comprehensive alternative one. Surely the Requiem means something, but we are only told what it does not mean. We are forced to imagine what the possibilities are ourselves. Alec Robertson recognizes this issue when a nonbiblical perspective is assumed: “The Requiem must be for some of us a fl awed work because of the composer's inability to identify himself fully with his texts and because one is left asking questions that cannot be answered. Who to him were ‘Lord’ and ‘God’?” The answer to that question as well as the meaning of “creator,” “the coming of the Lord,” “the redeemed of the LORD,” “souls of the righteous,” “Zion,” “Zebaoth,” and other theological concepts need to be systematically confronted to determine how these terms and ideas can be accepted universally or from a non-Christian perspective.