Requiem

The Mass for the dead, from plainchant to the concert hall.

Related

ClassicalRequiemCounterpointVoice

A requiem is the Mass for the dead. Its Latin text is fixed, yet the music is rewritten in every age. It serves the rite and also lets a composer speak to death.

Origins and dates

Chant for the requiem Mass existed in the Middle Ages, and polyphonic settings appeared in the Renaissance. Mozart's unfinished score of 1791 became the model. Berlioz and Verdi enlarged orchestra and drama. Brahms's German Requiem used German biblical texts instead, and Fauré returned to calm.

Listening features

Hear the opening theme of the introit and the counterpoint of the Kyrie. The Dies irae is the most violent, where drums and brass often enter. The Lacrimosa slows, often with a soprano solo. The Sanctus and Agnus Dei return to the choir, and the work ends with lux aeterna.

Composers and works

Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Brahms, Fauré and Britten.

Lineage

It grows from Gregorian chant and the Renaissance Mass and leads to the concert requiem, the war requiem and requiem passages in film scores.

Misconceptions

A requiem is not always in Latin; Brahms used German. It is not always gloomy, since Fauré's version is bright. Nor does it belong only to the Catholic Church.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Requiem mass" — definitions and dating checked, not quoted
• Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 3 — context checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.