• Dutch: requiem, dodenmis
• Finnish: sielunmessu
• German: Requiem , Totenmesse , Seelenmesse
• Hungarian: rekviem, gyászmise
• Japanese: 死者のためのミサ (shishano tame no misa)

• Dutch: requiem, dodenmis
• Finnish: requiem
• German: Requiem , Totenmesse
• Hungarian: rekviem
• Japanese: 鎮魂歌 (chinkonka)

• ttbc Italian: requiem
• ttbc Spanish: réquiem

Italian

Noun

requiem

1. requiem

The Requiem (from Latin requiem, accusative case of requies, rest) or Requiem Mass (informally, a funeral Mass), also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic Anglicans, as well as certain Lutheran Churches in the United States. There is also a requiem, with a wholly different ritual form and texts, that is observed in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The common theme of requiems is prayer for the salvation of the soul(s) of the departed, and it is used both at services immediately preceding a burial, and on occasions of more general remembrance.

"Requiem" is also the title of various musical compositions used in such liturgical services or as concert pieces as settings of the portions of that Mass which have been traditionally sung in the Roman Catholic liturgy.

While the prayers in the regular Mass as the Introit and Gradual change according to the Calendar of Saints, the text for the requiem Mass is particularly fixed. Originally such funeral musical compositions were meant to be performed in liturgical service, with monophonic chant. Eventually the dramatic character began to appeal to composers to an extent that made the requiem a genre of its own.

The Roman Rite liturgy

This use of the word requiem comes from the opening words of the Introit: Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.) The requiem form of the Tridentine Mass differs from the ordinary Mass in omitting certain joyful passages such as the Alleluia, in never having the Gloria or the Credo, in adding the sequence Dies Iræ, in altering the Agnus Dei, in replacing "Ite missa est" with "Requiescant in pace", and in omitting the final blessing. These distinctions have not been kept in the Roman Rite as revised after the Second Vatican Council.

The regular texts of the musical portions to be found in the Roman Catholic liturgy are the following:

• Introit:

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn becomes you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer; to you shall all flesh come. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”)

• Kyrie eleison, as the Kyrie the Ordinary of the Mass:

Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison (Κυριε ελεησον; Χριστε ελεησον; Κυριε ελεησον).

This is Greek for “Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy.” Traditionally, each utterance is sung three times.

• Gradual:

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine; In memoria æterna erit justus, ab auditione mala non timebit.

(“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. He shall be justified in everlasting memory, and shall not fear evil reports.”)

• Tract:

Absolve, Domine, animas omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omno vinculo delictorum et gratia tua illis succurente mereantur evadere iudicium ultionis, et lucis æterne beatitudine perfrui.

(“Forgive, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from all the chains of their sins and may they deserve to avoid the judgment of revenge by your fostering grace, and enjoy the everlasting blessedness of light.”)

• Sequence:

Dies iræ, dies illa

Solvet sæclum in favilla,

teste David cum Sibylla...

(“Day of wrath, a day that the world will dissolve in ashes, as foretold by David and the Sibyl...”) (See Dies Iræ for full text)

• Offertory:

''Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex gloriæ, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de pœnis inferni et de profundo lacu. Libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum; sed signifer sanctus Michæl repræsentet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini ejus.''

(“Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, free the souls of all the faithful departed from infernal punishment and the deep pit. Free them from the mouth of the lion; do not let Tartarus swallow them, nor let them fall into darkness; but may the sign-bearer, Saint Michael, lead them into the holy light which you promised to Abraham and his seed.”)

Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus; tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam. Quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini ejus.

(“O Lord, we offer you sacrifices and prayers in praise; accept them on behalf of the souls whom we remember today. Make them pass over from death to life, as you promised to Abraham and his seed.”)

• Sanctus, as the Sanctus prayer in the Ordinary of the Mass:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth; pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua.

(“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts; Heaven and earth are full of your glory”).

Hosanna in excelsis.

(“Hosanna in the highest”).

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

(“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”).

Hosanna in excelsis. (reprise)

• Agnus Dei, text as the Agnus Dei in the Ordinary of the Mass, but with the petitions miserere nobis changed to dona eis requiem, and dona nobis pacem to dona eis requiem sempiternam:

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem,

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem,

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam.

(“Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant them rest, … grant them rest eternal.”).

• Communion:

Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in æternum, quia pius es. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(“May everlasting light shine upon them, O Lord, with your saints forever, for you are faithful. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may everlasting light shine upon them.”)

As with the regular Sunday or ferial Mass in penitential seasons, the Gloria (from the Ordinary) is always omitted in a Requiem Mass. In the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite and Alleluia (from the Proper) is also omitted, as being overly joyful, and is replaced by the Tract. Likewise, the Credo (which, like the Gloria, is used in the ordinary Mass only on more solemn feasts) is never used in the Requiem Mass. The Dies iræ was rendered optional in 1967 and was omitted altogether from the revised Mass in 1969; at the same time, the Tract was abolished and the Alleluia added to the Requiem Mass, except in Lent, when it is replaced also at ordinary Masses by a less joyful acclamation.

Musical compositions

For many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung to Gregorian melodies. The Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem, written sometime in the latter half of the 15th century, is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting. There was a setting by the elder composer Dufay, possibly earlier, which is now lost: Ockeghem's may have been modelled on it. Many early requiems employ different texts that were in use in different liturgies around Europe before the Council of Trent set down the texts given above. The requiem of Brumel, circa 1500, is the first to include the Dies Iræ. In the early polyphonic settings of the Requiem, there is considerable textural contrast within the compositions themselves: simple chordal or fauxbourdon-like passages are contrasted with other sections of contrapuntal complexity, such as in the Offertory of Ockeghem's Requiem.

20th century developments

In the 20th century the requiem evolved in several new directions. The genre of war requiems is perhaps the most notable, which comprise 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, the War Requiem of Benjamin Britten juxtaposes the Latin text with the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and Robert Steadman's Mass in Black intersperses environmental poetry and prophecies of Nostradamus. The several Holocaust requiems may be regarded as a specific subset of this type. The World Requiem of John Foulds was written in the aftermath of the First World War and initiated the Royal British Legion's annual festival of remembrance.

Lastly, the 20th century saw the development of secular requiems, written for public performance without specific religious observance (e.g., Kabalevsky's War Requiem, to poems by Robert Rozhdestvensky). Herbert Howells's unaccompanied Requiem uses Psalm 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 of requiem, as exemplified by the most famous of these, Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem. Igor Stravinsky's Requiem canticles mixes instrumental movements with segments of the "Introit," "Dies irae," "Pie Jesu," and "Libera me."

Hans Werner Henze wrote Das Floß der Medusa in 1968 as a requiem for Che Guevara, although it is properly speaking an oratorio. His Requiem was written in the 1990s, with the traditional title for the movements, but played by instrumentalists without singers.

Famous Requiems

See also: Requiems

Many composers have written Requiems. Some of the most famous include:

• Ockeghem's Requiem, the earliest to survive, written sometime in the mid-to-late 15th century
• Victoria's Requiem of 1603, (part of a longer Office for the Dead)
• Mozart's Requiem in D minor (Mozart died before its completion)
• Berlioz' Grande Messe des Morts
• Verdi's Requiem
• Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, based on passages from Luther's Bible.
• Fauré's Requiem in D minor
• Dvořák's Requiem, Op. 89
• Britten's War Requiem, which incorporated poems by Wilfred Owen.
• Duruflé's Requiem, based almost exclusively on the chants from the Graduale Romanum.
• Rutter's Requiem, includes selected Psalms.
• Ligeti's Requiem

Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem and Arthur Honegger's Symphonie Liturgique use titles from the traditional Requiem as subtitles of movements.

Other Requiem composers

Renaissance

• Giovanni Francesco Anerio
• Gianmatteo Asola
• Giulio Belli
• Antoine Brumel
• Manuel Cardoso
• Joan Cererols
• Pierre Certon
• Clemens non Papa
• Guillaume Dufay (lost)
• Pedro de Escobar
• Antoine de Févin
• Francisco Guerrero
• Jacobus de Kerle
• Orlande de Lassus
• Duarte Lobo
• Jean Maillard
• Jacques Mauduit
• Manuel Mendes
• Cristóbal de Morales
• Johannes Ockeghem (the earliest to survive)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Costanzo Porta
• Johannes Prioris
• Jean Richafort
• Pierre de la Rue
• Claudin de Sermisy
• Jacobus Vaet
• Tomás Luis de Victoria

Baroque

• Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier
• Jean Gilles
• Johann Joseph Fux
• Claudio Monteverdi (lost)
• Michael Praetorius
• Heinrich Schütz
• Jan Dismas Zelenka
• Antonio Lotti (Requiem in F Major)

Classical period

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Luigi Cherubini
• Florian Leopold Gassmann
• François-Joseph Gossec
• Michael Haydn
• Andrea Luchesi
• José Maurício Nunes Garcia
• Antonio Salieri

Romantic era

• Hector Berlioz
• João Domingos Bomtempo
• Johannes Brahms
• Anton Bruckner
• Carl Czerny
• Gaetano Donizetti
• Antonín Dvořák
• Gabriel Fauré
• Charles Gounod
• Franz Liszt
• Max Reger
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• Robert Schumann
• Franz von Suppé
• Charles Villiers Stanford
• Giuseppe Verdi
• Richard Wetz
• See also: Messa per Rossini

Post-romantic/20th century

• Ray Vincent Adams
• Malcolm Archer
• Vyacheslav Artyomov
• Osvaldas Balakauskas
• Benjamin Britten
• Vladimir Dashkevich
• Alfred Desenclos
• Ralph Dunstan
• Maurice Duruflé
• Hans Werner Henze
• Herbert Howells
• Karl Jenkins
• Joonas Kokkonen
• Cyrillus Kreek
• György Ligeti
• Frigyes Hidas
• Frank Martin
• Krzysztof Penderecki
• Ildebrando Pizzetti
• Jocelyn Pook
• Zbigniew Preisner
• John Rutter
• Alfred Schnittke
• Valentin Silvestrov
• Robert Steadman
• Igor Stravinsky
• Toru Takemitsu
• John Tavener
• Virgil Thomson
• Erkki-Sven Tüür
• Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Alemdar Karamanov

New Era/21st century

• Carlo Forlivesi
• Tyzen Hsiao
• Karl Jenkins
• Christopher Rouse
• Kentaro Sato
• Mack Wilberg
• Savage Sun
• Björk, (Heartbeat aka 'Prayer of the Heart')
• Christian Favre

Requiems by language (other than purely Latin)

English with Latin

• Ray Vincent Adams
• Benjamin Britten
• Evgeni Kostitsyn
• Herbert Howells
• John Rutter
• Mack Wilberg

German

• Michael Praetorius
• Heinrich Schütz
• Franz Schubert
• Johannes Brahms

French, English, German with Latin

• Edison Denisov

Polish with Latin

• Krzysztof Penderecki
• Zbigniew Preisner

Russian

• Sergei Taneyev - Cantata John of Damascus, Op.1 (Text by Alexey Tolstoy)
• Dmitri Kabalevsky - War Requiem (Text by Robert Rozhdestvensky)
• Elena Firsova - Requiem, Op.100 (Text by Anna Akhmatova)
• Vladimir Dashkevich - Requiem (Text by Anna Akhmatova)

Taiwanese

• Tyzen Hsiao - Ilha Formosa: Requiem for the Formosan Martyrs, 2001 (Text by Min-yung Lee, 1994)

Nonlinguistic

• Carlo Forlivesi - Requiem, for 8-channel tape

See also

• Mass (music)
• Memorial
• Oratorio
• Religious music
• Vocal music

Notes

External links

wikisource Requiem

• Alphabetical Requiems Survey
• Online Guide to Requiem
• Writing - The Requiem Mass : A Literal Translation

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