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Music for the Requiem Mass is any music that accompanies theRequiem, or Mass for the Dead, in theCatholic Church. This church service has inspired hundreds of compositions, including settings byVictoria,Mozart,Berlioz,Verdi,Fauré,Dvořák,Duruflé andBritten. For centuries settings of the Mass for the Dead were to be chanted inliturgical servicemonophonically. Later the settings becamepolyphonic, Victoria's famous 1605a cappella work being an example. By Mozart's time (1791) it was standard to embed the dramatic and longDies irae (Day of Wrath) sequence, and to score withorchestra. Eventually many settings of the Requiem, not least Verdi's (1874), were essentially concert pieces unsuitable for church service.
The following are the texts that have been set to music. Note that theLibera Me and theIn Paradisum are not part of the text of the Catholic Mass for the Dead itself, but a part of the burial rite that immediately follows.In Paradisum was traditionally said or sung as the body left the church, and theLibera Me is said/sung at the burial site before interment. These became included in musical settings of the Requiem in the 19th century as composers began to treat the form more liberally.
From4 Esdras 2:34–35;Psalm 65:1-2
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: | Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord,
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This is as theKyrie in the Ordinary of theMass:
Kyrie, eleison. | Lord, have mercy.
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This isGreek (Κύριε ἐλέησον, Χριστὲ ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον). Each utterance is sung three times, though sometimes that is not the case when sung polyphonically.
From 4 Esdras 2:34–35;Psalm 112:6
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: | Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord;
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Absolve, Domine, | Absolve, O Lord,
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Asequence is a liturgical poem sung, when used, after the Tract (or Alleluia, if present). The sequence employed in the Requiem,Dies irae, attributed toThomas of Celano (c. 1200 – c. 1260–1270), has been called "the greatest of hymns", worthy of "supreme admiration".[1] The Latin text is included in the Requiem Mass in the1962 Roman Missal. An early English version was translated byWilliam Josiah Irons in 1849.
Domine Iesu Christe, Rex gloriæ, | Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
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Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, | We offer to Thee, O Lord,
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This is as theSanctus prayer in the Ordinary of theMass:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus | Holy, holy, holy,
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This is as theAgnus Dei in the Ordinary of theMass, but with the petitionsmiserere nobis changed todona eis requiem, anddona nobis pacem todona eis requiem sempiternam:[2]
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona eis requiem. | Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, grant them rest. |
Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine: | May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord,
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As mentioned above, there is noGloria,Alleluia or Credo in these musical settings.
Some text extracts have been set to music independently, such as thePie Jesu in the settings of Fauré (1880s), Dvořák (1890s), Duruflé (1940s) andRutter (later).Pie Jesu are late words in theDies irae and they are followed by the final words of theAgnus Dei:
Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. | Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest;
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Settings sometimes include passages from the "Absolution at the bier" (Absolutio ad feretrum) or "Commendation of the dead person" (referred to also as theAbsolution of the dead), which in the case of a funeral, follows the conclusion of the Mass.
Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda: | Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal inthat awful day.
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In paradisum deducant te Angeli: | May the Angels lead thee into paradise:
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For many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung toGregorian melodies. TheRequiem byJohannes Ockeghem, written sometime in the later half of the 15th century, is the earliest survivingpolyphonic setting. There was a setting by the elder composerGuillaume Du Fay, possibly earlier, which is now lost: Ockeghem's may have been modelled on it.[3] Many early compositions employ different texts that were in use in different liturgies around Europe before theCouncil of Trent set down the texts given above. The requiem ofBrumel, circa 1500, is the first to include theDies Iræ. In the early polyphonic settings of the Requiem, there is considerable textural contrast within the compositions themselves: simple chordal orfauxbourdon-like passages are contrasted with other sections of contrapuntal complexity, such as in the Offertory of Ockeghem's Requiem.[3]
In the 16th century, more and more composers set the Requiem mass. In contrast to practice in setting the Mass Ordinary, many of these settings used acantus-firmus technique, something which had become quite archaic by mid-century. In addition, these settings used less textural contrast than the early settings by Ockeghem and Brumel, although the vocal scoring was often richer, for example in the six-voice Requiem byJean Richafort which he wrote for the death ofJosquin des Prez.[3] Other composers before 1550 includePedro de Escobar,Antoine de Févin,Cristóbal de Morales, andPierre de la Rue; that by la Rue is probably the second oldest, after Ockeghem's.
Over 2,000 Requiem compositions have been composed to the present day. Typically the Renaissance settings, especially those not written on theIberian Peninsula, may be performeda cappella (i.e. without accompanying instrumental parts), whereas, beginning around 1600 composers more often preferred to use instruments to accompany achoir, and also include vocal soloists. There is great variation between compositions in how much of the liturgical text is set to music.
Most composers omit sections of the liturgical prescription, most frequently the Gradual and the Tract.Fauré omits theDies iræ, while the very same text had often been set by French composers in previous centuries as a stand-alone work.
Sometimes composers divide an item of the liturgical text into two or more movements; because of the length of its text, theDies iræ is the most frequently divided section of the text (as with Mozart, for instance). TheIntroit andKyrie, being immediately adjacent in the actual Roman Catholic liturgy, are often composed as one movement.
Musico-thematic relationships among movements within a Requiem can be found as well.
Beginning in the 18th century and continuing through the 19th, many composers wrote what are effectively concert works, which, by virtue of employing forces too large, or lasting such a considerable duration, prevent them being readily used in an ordinary funeral service; the requiems ofGossec,Berlioz,Verdi, andDvořák are essentially dramatic concertoratorios. A counter-reaction to this tendency came from theCecilian movement, which recommended restrained accompaniment for liturgical music, and frowned upon the use of operatic vocal soloists.
Many composers have composed a Requiem. Some of the most notable include the following (in chronological order):
English with Latin
Cornish
Estonian
German
French, Greek, with Latin
French, English, German with Latin
Latin and Japanese
Latin and German and others
Latin and Polish
Latin and 7th Century Northumbrian
Russian
Chinese
Vietnamese
Nonlinguistic
In the 20th century the requiem evolved in several new directions. One offshoot consists of compositions dedicated to the memory of people killed in wartime. These often include extra-liturgical poems of a pacifist or non-liturgical nature; for example, theWar Requiem ofBenjamin Britten juxtaposes the Latin text with the poetry ofWilfred Owen,Krzysztof Penderecki'sPolish Requiem includes a traditional Polish hymn within the sequence, andRobert Steadman'sMass in Black interspersesenvironmentalpoetry andprophecies ofNostradamus.Holocaust Requiem may be regarded as a specific subset of this type. TheWorld Requiem ofJohn Foulds was written in the aftermath of theFirst World War and initiated theRoyal British Legion's annual festival of remembrance. Recent requiem works byTaiwanese composersTyzen Hsiao andFan-Long Ko follow in this tradition, honouring victims of theFebruary 28 Incident and subsequentWhite Terror.
Lastly, the 20th century saw the development of the secular Requiem, written for public performance without specific religious observance, such asFrederick Delius'sRequiem, completed in 1916 and dedicated to "the memory of all young Artists fallen in the war",[13] andDmitry Kabalevsky'sRequiem (Op. 72 – 1962), a setting of a poem written byRobert Rozhdestvensky especially for the composition.[14]Herbert Howells's unaccompaniedRequiem usesPsalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd"), Psalm 121 ("I will lift up mine eyes"), "Salvator mundi" ("O Saviour of the world," in English), "Requiem aeternam" (two different settings), and "I heard a voice from heaven." Some composers have written purely instrumental works bearing the title ofrequiem, as famously exemplified by Britten'sSinfonia da Requiem.Hans Werner Henze'sDas Floß der Medusa, written in 1968 as a requiem forChe Guevara, is properly speaking anoratorio; Henze'sRequiem is instrumental but retains the traditional Latin titles for the movements.Igor Stravinsky'sRequiem Canticles mixes instrumental movements with segments of the "Introit," "Dies irae," "Pie Jesu," and "Libera me."
nott seven great hymns.
