Dies Irae
Encyclopedia
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
thought to be written by Thomas of Celano
Thomas of Celano
Thomas of Celano was an Italian friar of the Franciscans , a poet, and the author of three hagiographies about Saint Francis of Assisi.Thomas was from Celano in Abruzzo...
(1200 – c. 1265). It is a medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
poem characterized by its accentual stress
Accentual verse
Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line or stanza regardless of the number of syllables that are present. It is common in languages that are stress-timed, such as English—as opposed to syllabic verse, which is common in syllable-timed languages, such as French.- Children's poetry...
and its rhymed lines. The metre
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
is trochaic
Trochee
A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one...
. The poem describes the day of judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
, the last trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
summoning souls before the throne of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames.
The hymn is best known from its use as a sequence
Sequence (poetry)
A sequence is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Council of Trent there were sequences for many feasts in the Church's year.The sequence has always been sung...
in the Roman Catholic Requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
. It was removed from the ordinary form of the Roman Rite
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
Mass in the liturgical reform of 1969–1970
Mass of Paul VI
The Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council...
, but was retained as a hymn of the Divine Office
Canonical hours
Canonical hours are divisions of time which serve as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers....
. It can still be heard when the 1962 form of the Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
is used. An English version of it is found in various missals used in the Anglican Communion.
Use in the Roman liturgy
Those familiar with musical settings of the Requiem Mass—such as those by MozartRequiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
or Verdi
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
—will be aware of the important place Dies Iræ held in the liturgy.
It remained as the sequence for the Requiem Mass in the Roman Missal of 1962 (the last edition before the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
) and so is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
is celebrated.
The Dies Irae was retained only in part by the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy" – the Vatican body charged with drafting and implementing reforms to the Catholic Liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
ordered by the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. It is given as the hymn in the Liturgy of the Hours during last week before Advent for the Office of Readings
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
, Lauds and Vespers (divided into three parts).
Nevertheless the same body felt that the funeral rite was in need of reform and eliminated the sequence as such from the Masses for the Dead. A leading figure in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini
Annibale Bugnini
Annibale Bugnini, C.M. was a Roman Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1936 and named archbishop in 1972, he was secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Catholic liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council....
, explains the mind of the Cardinals and Bishops who were members of the Consilium:
- They got rid of texts that smacked of a negative spirituality inherited from the Middle Ages. Thus they removed such familiar and even beloved texts as the Libera me, DomineLibera MeLīberā mē, Libera me is a Roman Catholic responsory that is sung in the Office of the Dead and at the absolution of the dead, a service of prayers for the dead said by the coffin immediately after the Requiem Mass and before burial. The text of Libera Me asks God to have mercy upon the deceased...
, the Dies Iræ, and others that overemphasized judgment, fear, and despair. These they replaced with texts urging Christian hope and arguably giving more effective expression to faith in the resurrection.
The text
The Latin text below is taken from the Requiem Mass in the 1962 Roman MissalTridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
. The first English version below, translated by William Josiah Irons
William Josiah Irons
William Josiah Irons was a priest in the Church of England and a theological writer.-Life:Irons, born at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, September 12, 1812, was second son of the Rev. Joseph Irons , by his first wife, Mary Ann, daughter of William Broderick. His mother died in 1828...
in 1849, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. The second English version is a more formal equivalence
Dynamic and formal equivalence
In Bible translation dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence are two approaches to translation. The terms are not found in general linguistics or translation theory but were coined by Eugene Nida...
.
| 1 | Dies iræ! Dies illa Solvet sæclum in favilla: Teste David cum Sibylla! |
Day of wrath! O day of mourning! See fulfilled the prophets' warning, Heaven and earth in ashes burning! |
The day of wrath, that day Will dissolve the world in ashes As foretold by David and the sibyl! |
| 2 | Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando iudex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus! |
Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth, when from heaven the Judge descendeth, on whose sentence all dependeth. |
How much tremor there will be, when the judge will come, investigating everything strictly! |
| 3 | Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulchra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum. |
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth; through earth's sepulchers it ringeth; all before the throne it bringeth. |
The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the sepulchres of the regions, will summon all before the throne. |
| 4 | Mors stupebit, et natura, Cum resurget creatura, Iudicanti responsura. |
Death is struck, and nature quaking, all creation is awaking, to its Judge an answer making. |
Death and nature will marvel, when the creature arises, to respond to the Judge. |
| 5 | Liber scriptus proferetur, In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus iudicetur. |
Lo! the book, exactly worded, wherein all hath been recorded: thence shall judgment be awarded. |
The written book will be brought forth, in which all is contained, from which the world shall be judged. |
| 6 | Iudex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet, apparebit: Nil inultum remanebit. |
When the Judge his seat attaineth, and each hidden deed arraigneth, nothing unavenged remaineth. |
When therefore the judge will sit, whatever hides will appear: nothing will remain unpunished. |
| 7 | Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus, Cum vix iustus sit securus? |
What shall I, frail man, be pleading? Who for me be interceding, when the just are mercy needing? |
What am I, miserable, then to say? Which patron to ask, when [even] the just may [only] hardly be sure? |
| 8 | Rex tremendæ maiestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis. |
King of Majesty tremendous, who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity, then befriend us! |
King of tremendous majesty, who freely savest those that have to be saved, save me, source of mercy. |
| 9 | Recordare, Iesu pie, Quod sum causa tuæ viæ: Ne me perdas illa die. |
Think, good Jesus, my salvation cost thy wondrous Incarnation; leave me not to reprobation! |
Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of thy way: lest thou lose me in that day. |
| 10 | Quærens me, sedisti lassus: Redemisti Crucem passus: Tantus labor non sit cassus. |
Faint and weary, thou hast sought me, on the cross of suffering bought me. shall such grace be vainly brought me? |
Seeking me, thou sat tired: thou redeemed [me] having suffered the Cross: let not so much hardship be lost. |
| 11 | Iuste iudex ultionis, Donum fac remissionis Ante diem rationis. |
Righteous Judge! for sin's pollution grant thy gift of absolution, ere the day of retribution. |
Just judge of revenge, give the gift of remission before the day of reckoning. |
| 12 | Ingemisco, tamquam reus: Culpa rubet vultus meus: Supplicanti parce, Deus. |
Guilty, now I pour my moaning, all my shame with anguish owning; spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning! |
I sigh, like the guilty one: my face reddens in guilt: Spare the supplicating one, God. |
| 13 | Qui Mariam absolvisti, Et latronem exaudisti, Mihi quoque spem dedisti. |
Thou the sinful woman savedst; thou the dying thief forgavest; and to me a hope vouchsafest. |
Thou who absolved Mary, and heardest the robber, gavest hope to me, too. |
| 14 | Preces meæ non sunt dignæ: Sed tu bonus fac benigne, Ne perenni cremer igne. |
Worthless are my prayers and sighing, yet, good Lord, in grace complying, rescue me from fires undying! |
My prayers are not worthy: however, thou, Good [Lord], do good, lest I am burned up by eternal fire. |
| 15 | Inter oves locum præsta, Et ab hædis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra. |
With thy favored sheep O place me; nor among the goats abase me; but to thy right hand upraise me. |
Grant me a place among the sheep, and take me out from among the goats, setting me on the right side. |
| 16 | Confutatis maledictis, Flammis acribus addictis: Voca me cum benedictis. |
While the wicked are confounded, doomed to flames of woe unbounded call me with thy saints surrounded. |
Once the cursed have been rebuked, sentenced to acrid flames: Call thou me with the blessed. |
| 17 | Oro supplex et acclinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis: Gere curam mei finis. |
Low I kneel, with heart submission, see, like ashes, my contrition; help me in my last condition. |
I meekly and humbly pray, [my] heart is as crushed as the ashes: perform the healing of mine end. |
| 18 | Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla Judicandus homo reus. Huic ergo parce, Deus: |
Ah! that day of tears and mourning! From the dust of earth returning man for judgment must prepare him; Spare, O God, in mercy spare him! |
Tearful will be that day, on which from the ash arises the guilty man who is to be judged. Spare him therefore, God. |
| 19 | Pie Iesu Pie Jesu Pie Jesu is a motet derived from the final couplet of the Dies irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent... Domine, dona eis requiem. Amen. |
Lord, all pitying, Jesus blest, grant them thine eternal rest. Amen. |
Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen. |
Because the last two stanzas differ markedly in structure from the preceding stanzas, some scholars consider them to be an addition made in order to suit the great poem for liturgical use. The penultimate stanza Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa (Requiem)
The Lacrimosa is part of the Dies Irae sequence in the Requiem mass. Its text comes from the 18th and 19th stanzas of the sequence. Many composers, including Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi have set the text as a discrete movement of the Requiem.-Latin Text:...
discards the consistent scheme of rhyming triplets in favor of a pair of rhyming couplets. The last stanza Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu is a motet derived from the final couplet of the Dies irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent...
abandons rhyme for assonance, and, moreover, its lines are catalectic
Catalectic
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line....
.
In 1970, the Dies Iræ was removed from the Missal and since 1971 has been proposed ad libitum
Ad libitum
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
as a hymn for the Liturgy of the Hours at the Office of Readings
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
, Lauds
Lauds
Lauds is a divine office that takes place in the early morning hours and is one of the two major hours in the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it forms part of the Office of Matins...
and Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
. For this purpose stanza 19 was deleted and the poem divided into three sections: 1–6 (for the Office of Readings), 7–12 (for Lauds) and 13–18 (for Vespers). In addition Qui Mariam absolvisti in stanza 13 was replaced by Peccatricem qui solvisti so that that line would now mean, "You who freed/absolved the sinful woman". In addition a doxology
Doxology
A doxology is a short hymn of praises to God in various Christian worship services, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns...
is given after stanzas 6, 12 and 18:
| O tu, Deus majestatis, alme candor Trinitatis nos coniunge cum beatis. Amen. |
O God of majesty nourishing light of the Trinity Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being... join us with the blessed Beatific vision The beatific vision - in Christian theology is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person, when she or he reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven... . Amen. |
O thou, God of majesty, gracious splendour of the Trinity conjoin us with the blessed. Amen. |
Inspiration and other translations
A major inspiration of the hymn seems to have come from the VulgateVulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
translation of Zephaniah
Zephaniah
Zephaniah or Tzfanya is the name of several people in the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. He is also called Sophonias as in the New Catholic Encyclopaedia and in Easton's [Bible] Dictionary....
1:15–16:
- Dies iræ, dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis, dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas et super angulos excelsos.
- That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high bulwarks. (Douay–Rheims Bible)
Other images come from Revelation 20:11–15 (the book from which the world will be judged), (sheep and goats, right hand, contrast between the blessed and the accursed doomed to flames), 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (trumpet), 2 Peter 3:7 (heaven and earth burnt by fire), Luke 21:26–27 ("men fainting with fear ... they will see the Son of Man coming"), etc.
From the Jewish liturgy
Jewish liturgy
Jewish liturgy refers specifically to following the Torah in all of its rites and ceremonies, whether in the home or in the Synagogue. The main purposes of following the carefully laid out observances is to maintain uniformity, and to avoid improper and unacceptable practices at variance with those...
, the prayer Unetanneh Tokef
Unetanneh Tokef
Unetanneh Tokef, Unethanneh Toqeph, or Unesanneh Tokef is a piyyut that has been a part of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy in rabbinical Judaism for centuries. It introduces the Kedusha of Musaf for these days...
also appears to have been a source: "We shall ascribe holiness to this day, For it is awesome and terrible"; "the great trumpet is sounded", etc.
A number of English translations of the poem have been written and proposed for liturgical use. A very loose Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
version was made by John Newton
John Newton
John Henry Newton was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career on the sea at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of...
; it opens:
- Day of judgment! Day of wonders!
- Hark! the trumpet's awful sound,
- Louder than a thousand thunders,
- Shakes the vast creation round!
- How the summons wilt the sinner's heart confound!
Jan Kasprowicz
Jan Kasprowicz
Jan Kasprowicz was a poet, playwright, critic and translator; a foremost representative of Young Poland.-Life:...
, a Polish poet, wrote a hymn entitled Dies irae which describes the Judgment day
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
. The first six lines (two stanzas) follow the original hymn's metre and rhyme structure, and the first stanza translates to "The trumpet will cast a wondrous sound".
The American writer Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
published a satiric version of the poem in his 1903 book Shapes of Clay, preserving the original metre but using humorous and sardonic language; for example, the second verse is rendered:
- Ah! what terror shall be shaping
- When the Judge the truth's undraping –
- Cats from every bag escaping!
Rev. Bernard Callan (1750–1804), an Irish priest and poet, translated it into Gaelic around 1800. His version is included in the Gaelic prayer book, The Spiritual Rose.
Manuscript sources
The oldest text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th century manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples. It is a FranciscanFranciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
calendar missal that must date between 1253–1255 for it does not contain the name of Clare of Assisi
Clare of Assisi
Clare of Assisi , born Chiara Offreduccio, is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi...
, who was canonized in 1255, and whose name would have been inserted if the manuscript were of later date.
Musical settings
In four-line neumaticNeume
A neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The word is a Middle English corruption of the ultimately Ancient Greek word for breath ....
notation, the Gregorian
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
chant of the sequence begins:
In 5-line staff
Staff (music)
In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
notation, the same appears:
The words have often been set to music as part of the Requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
service, originally as a sombre plainchant
Plainsong
Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...
. It also formed part of the traditional Catholic liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
of All Souls' Day. Music for the Requiem Mass has been composed by many composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
as well as Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
, and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
.
The traditional Gregorian melody has also been used as a musical quotation
Musical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
in a number of other classical compositions, notable among them:
- Charles-Valentin AlkanCharles-Valentin AlkanCharles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
– Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétiqueTrois morceaux dans le genre pathétiqueTrois morceaux dans le genre pathétique is a 3 movement suite for piano composed by the French composer, Charles-Valentin Alkan, published in 1837. The suite also bears the title Souvenirs...
, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte) - Ernest BlochErnest BlochErnest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
– Suite Symphonique - Hector BerliozHector BerliozHector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
– Symphonie fantastiqueSymphonie FantastiqueSymphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties , Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period, and is still very popular with concert audiences... - George CrumbGeorge CrumbGeorge Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
– Black AngelsBlack Angels (Crumb)Black Angels , subtitled "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land" is an avant-garde work composed by George Crumb for "electric string quartet." It was composed over the course of a year and is dated "Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 " as written on the score... - Michael DaughertyMichael DaughertyMichael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...
– Metropolis SymphonyMetropolis SymphonyMetropolis Symphony for Orchestra by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately, however, it is...
5th movement, "Red Cape Tango"; - Diamanda GalásDiamanda GalásDiamanda Galás is an American avant-garde composer, vocalist, pianist, organist, performance artist and painter.Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror", with her three and a half octave vocal range. She often screams, hisses and growls...
– Masque Of The Red Death: Part I – The Divine PunishmentThe Divine PunishmentThe Divine Punishment is the third full-length album by avant-garde performer Diamanda Galás, and the first installment of her "Masque of the Red Death Trilogy" about the AIDS epidemic... - Donald GranthamDonald GranthamDonald Grantham is an American composer and music educator.Grantham was born in Duncan, Oklahoma. After receiving a Bachelor of Music from the University of Oklahoma, he went on to receive his MM and DMA from the University of Southern California. For two summers he studied under famed French...
- Baron Cimetiére's Mambo - Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
– FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
opera, Act IV - Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
– Symphony No. 103, "The Drumroll"Symphony No. 103 (Haydn)The Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, Hoboken 1/103, is the eleventh of the twelve so-called London Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn.This symphony is nicknamed "The Drumroll", after the long roll on the timpani with which it begins.... - Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
– TotentanzTotentanz (Liszt)Totentanz : Paraphrase on Dies irae , S.126, is the name of a symphonic piece for solo piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt, which is notable for being based on the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae as well as for daring stylistic innovations... - Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
– Symphony No. 2Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...
, movements 1 and 5 - Sergei RachmaninoffSergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
– Symphony No. 1Symphony No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13, is a music piece by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, written at Ivanovka, an estate near Tambov, Russia, between January and October 1895...
, Op. 13; Symphony No. 2Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 is a music piece by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, created in 1906–07. The premiere was conducted by the composer himself in St. Petersburg on 8 February 1908. Its duration is approximately 60 minutes when performed uncut; cut performances can be as...
, Op. 27; Symphony No. 3Symphony No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 between 1935 and 1936. The Third Symphony is considered a transitional work in Rachmaninoff's output. In melodic outline and rhythm it is his most expressively Russian symphony, particularly in the dance rhythms of the finale...
, Op. 44; Isle of the DeadIsle of the Dead (Rachmaninoff)Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, is a symphonic poem composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff was inspired by Arnold Böcklin's painting, Isle of the Dead, which he saw in Paris in 1907. He concluded the composition while staying in Dresden in 1908...
, Op. 29; The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35; Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniRhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniThe Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
, Op. 43; Symphonic DancesSymphonic Dances (Rachmaninoff)The Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, is an orchestral suite in three movements. Completed in 1940, it is Sergei Rachmaninoff's last composition. The work summarizes Rachmaninoff's compositional output....
, Op. 45 - Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
– Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony")Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic zenith of his career. It is also popularly known as the "Organ Symphony", even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out... - Peter SculthorpePeter SculthorpePeter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
- Memento Mori - Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
– Symphony No. 14Symphony No. 14 (Shostakovich)The Symphony No. 14 by Dmitri Shostakovich was completed in the spring of 1969, and was premiered later that year. It is a sombre work for soprano, bass and a small string orchestra with percussion, consisting of eleven linked settings of poems by four authors. Most of the poems deal with the... - Stephen SondheimStephen SondheimStephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
– Sweeney ToddSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet StreetSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1936 British film produced and directed by George King.-Plot:The film features Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles as barber Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd was wrongly sentenced to life in prison. After his release 15 years later, he begins...
– quoted in "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" and the accompaniment to "Epiphany" - Kaikhosru Shapurji SorabjiKaikhosru Shapurji SorabjiKaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer.-Biography:...
– Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae" ex Missa pro defunctis in clavicembali usum - Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
- Manfred SymphonyManfred SymphonyThe Manfred Symphony in B minor, Op. 58, is a programmatic symphony composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between May and September 1885. It is based on the poem "Manfred" written by Lord Byron in 1817...
, Orchestral Suite No. 3Orchestral Suite No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G, Op. 55 in 1884, writing it concurrently with his Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra. Its first performance was in St. Petersburg on January 24, 1885, under the direction of Hans von Bülow... - Eugène YsaÿeEugène YsaÿeEugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
– Solo Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Obsession"
Literary references
- Walter ScottWalter ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
used the first two stanzas in the sixth canto of his narrative poem "The Lay of the Last MinstrelThe Lay of the Last Minstrel"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" is a long narrative poem by Walter Scott. -Overview:...
" (1805). - Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
used the first, the sixth and the seventh stanza of the hymn in the scene "Cathedral" in the first part of his drama Faust (1808). - Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
composed a Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel, contrasting the "terrors of red flame and thundering" depicted in the hymn with images of "life and love". - In Gaston LerouxGaston LerouxGaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera , which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon...
's 1910 novel The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the OperaLe Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
, Erik (the Phantom) has the chant displayed on the wall of his funereal bedroom. - The character Michael in Iris MurdochIris MurdochDame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
's novel "The BellThe Bell (novel)The Bell is a novel written by Iris Murdoch in 1958. It was her fourth to be published, and is set in Imber Court, a lay religious community situated next to an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns in Gloucestershire.-Plot summary:...
" (1958) cites a stanza of the chant. - Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's 1963 novel V.V.V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named...
includes direct references to Dies Irae in chapter 9: "Somewhere in the house (though he may have dreamed that too) a chorus had begun singing a Dies Irae in plainsong." - In Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
's 1980 novel The Name of the RoseThe Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, Adso has a dream or vision based on the Coena Cypriani while the monks around him chant the Dies Irae.
External links
- Dies Iræ, FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Archive. Includes two Latin versions and a literal English translation.