Requiem
The Requiem Mass (Totenmesse, Messe des Mortis, Messe des morts, or Missa pro defunctis), a mass honoring the dead, takes its name from the first Latin word of the Introit, which begins Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord).
A musical setting of the requiem differs from the normal sung Mass in that it not only includes certain items of the ordinary mass and excludes others, but also includes the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion sentences from the Proper. The Gloria and Credo are omitted, and a Tract is substituted for the Alleluia. This is followed by the Sequence (Dies irae), which is often is a major dramatic element in the composition. Sometimes responses and other texts are added from the burial service, which usually follows directly after the Mass.
A more complete list of settings ordered alphabetically is available at Requiems.
View the Wikipedia article on Requiem.
Notes on selected settings
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Settings by composers (automatically updated)
- Johann Kaspar Aiblinger — Latin SATB
- Anonymous — Latin SA
- Georg Arnold — Latin SSATB
- Georg Arnold — Latin SSATB
- Giovanni Matteo Asola — Latin TTBB, TTB
- Giovanni Matteo Asola — Latin SATB
- Philipp Jacob Baudrexel — Latin SSATB
- Johann Georg Baumann — Latin B
- Giulio Belli — Latin SATTB
- Moritz Brosig — Latin SATB
- Claudio Casciolini — Latin SATB
- Maurizio Cazzati — Latin SATTB
- Marc-Antoine Charpentier — Latin SATB.SSATB
- Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari — Latin SSATB
- Jean Colin — Latin SSATBB
- Peter Cornelius — Latin TTBB,SATB
- Adrian Cuello — Latin SSATTB
- Christoph Dalitz — Latin
- Johann Melchior Dreyer — Latin SATB
- Johann Melchior Dreyer — Latin SAB
- Carl Ludwig Drobisch — Latin SATB
- Carl Ludwig Drobisch — Latin SATB
- Carl Ludwig Drobisch — Latin SATB
- Charles d’Helfer — Latin SATB
- Caspar Ett — Latin SATB
- Caspar Ett — Latin TTBB
- Caspar Ett — Latin SATB
- Carlotta Ferrari — Latin STB
- Johann Joseph Fux — Latin SATB
- Johann Joseph Fux — Latin SSATB
- Johann Joseph Fux — Latin SATB
- Robert Führer — Latin Solo Soprano
- Robert Führer — Latin SATB
- Robert Führer — Latin SAB
- Robert Führer — Latin SAB
- François Giroust — Latin SATBB
- Franz Gleissner — Latin SATB
- Óscar Manuel Paredes Grau — Latin SSATBB
- John Greutman — Latin TBB
- Paul van Gulick — 2 SSAATTBB
- P.A. Halik — Latin SATB
- V. V. Hausmann — Latin SATB
- Manfred Hößl — German SATB
- Manfred Hößl — Latin SATB
- Niccolò Jommelli — Latin SATB
- Jacob Axel Josephson — Latin TTBB
- Josquin des Prez — Latin SATTB,ATTBB
- Benet Julià — Latin SATB.SATB
- Benet Julià — Latin SATB
- Max Keller — Latin SAB
- Johann Caspar Kerll — Latin SATTB
- Jens Klimek — Latin SATB
- Jens Klimek — English SATB.SATB
- Frans Joseph Krafft — Latin SATB
- Huub de Lange — Latin SATB
- Juan de Lienas — Latin SSATB
- Franz Liszt — Latin TTBB
- Antonio Lotti — Latin SATB
- Allan Loucks — Latin SATB
- Allan Loucks — Latin SATB
- Allan Loucks — Latin SATB
- Allan Loucks — Latin SATB
- Giovanni Battista Martini — Latin SSA
- Jacques Mauduit — Latin SSATB
- Juan Montes — Latin SATB
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Latin SATB
- Giovanni Maria Nanino — Latin ATTB, SATB, TTBB
- Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm — Latin TTBB
- José Maurício Nunes Garcia — Latin SATB
- José Maurício Nunes Garcia — Latin SATB
- José Maurício Nunes Garcia — Latin SATB
- Paolo Pandolfo — Latin SATB
- Jacobus Clemens non Papa — Latin SATB
- Roger Petrich — Latin SATB
- Giuseppe Pitoni — Latin SSA
- Ildebrando Pizzetti — Latin SATBB
- Marcos Portugal — Latin SATB
- Oreste Ravanello — Latin SATB
- Ramiro Real — 2 SATB
- Ignaz Reimann — Latin SATB
- Joseph Renner — Latin SAB
- Joseph Renner — Latin SATB
- Josef Rheinberger — Latin SATB
- Josef Rheinberger — Latin SSATTB
- Ambros Rieder — Latin SATB
- Martin Rudolph — Latin SATB
- Luigi Antonio Sabbatini — Latin SSA
- Camille Saint-Saëns — Latin SATB
- Antonio Salieri — Latin SATB
- Anton Schmid — Latin SAB
- Giovanni Sgambati — Latin SATB
- David Joseph Stith — Latin SATB
- Franz von Suppé — Latin SATB
- Pietro Antonio Tamburini — Latin SATTB
- Cesare Tudino — Latin SATB
- Johann Baptist Vanhal — Latin SATB
- Giuseppe Verdi — Latin SATB
- Ludovico da Viadana — Latin SATTB
- Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse — Latin TTBB
- Pietro Yon — Latin TTB
- Vlad Zoborovski — Latin SATB
- Gregorio Zucchini — Latin SATB
Text and translations
The sequence of liturgical movements established in 1570 by the Council of Trent is as follows:
- Introit: Requiem aeternam… Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion…
- Kyrie
- Gradual: Requiem aeternam… In memoria aeterna erit iustus… (Lasso, Richafort, du Caurroy and others set the Gradual text Si ambulem in medio umbrae mortis (Though I walk in the middle of the shadow of death)).
- Tract: Absolve, Domine (The Sarum rite calls for Sicut cervus, also used in Ockeghem's Requiem)
- The Gradual and Tract are often omitted by composers, and it is not always clear that they then had to be chanted. The forward to the NMA Requiem notes with surprise the conjunction in an 1828 manual of church music: "After the epistle the gradual follows: Absolve Domine, or Dies irae" .
- Sequence: Dies irae
- Offertory Domine Jesu Christe - Hostias et preces
- Sanctus & Benedictus (sometimes an elevation motet such as Pie Jesu replaces Benedictus, a common French tradition.)
- Agnus Dei (miserere nobis is changed to dona eis requiem sempiternam)
- Communion Lux aeterna
Because the funeral mass does not end with the usual dismissal but leads into the burial service, many composers have appended texts from the Office of the Dead:
- Libera me (Exsequiae)
- In Paradisum (Valediction)
The famous Requiem of Tomás Luis de Victoria is actually part of a larger Office of the Dead (Officium defunctorum), as Victoria has supplemented the basic Requiem with a lesson from the service of Matins (Taedet animam meam), a funeral motet (Versa est in luctum), and the Responsory from the burial service (Libera me).
The Gloria and Credo, normally part of the Mass ordinary, are omitted from the requiem on the grounds that such overtly joyful texts would be out of place in a Mass for the dead.
Before the Tridentine reforms standardised the propers of the Requiem Mass, some composers used alternative texts for some movements, e.g. Orlando di Lasso sets the Gradual text Si ambulem in medio umbrae mortis (Though I walk in the middle of the shadow of death). While French composers had often set the Sequence (Dies irae) in its own right, Jean Gilles, Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé did not set it at all in their Requiems. Hector Berlioz reshuffled and slightly altered the lyrics of the Sequence.
Second Vatican Council reforms
In 1970 substantive changes were introduced, most notably the omission of the sequence Dies irae (which is still permitted for some weekday masses before Advent). Alternatives were added in the Gregorian Missal:
- For the gradual: Convertere Domine, Laetatus sum, Si ambulem, or Unam petii.
- The tract De profundis was added as an alternate to Absolve, but only permitted during Lent. Alleluias are to be chosen from: Requiem aeternam, De profundis, In exitu, and Laetatus sum.
- the Offertory verse Hostias is optional, and other offertories may be substituted: De profundis, Domine convertere, Illumina oculos & Si ambulavero.
- additional communions: Amen dico vobis quod uni, Domine quinque talenta, Dominus regit, Illumina faciem tuam, Notas mihi fecisti and Qui manducat.
Other stumbling blocks that arise from the use of old music with the Novus Ordo are the pauses for the spoken dialogues before the Kyrie and the communion antiphon; this has led to such abominations as letting the orchestra vamp on the last measures of Fauré's agnus during the Ecce agnus…Domine, non dignum dialogue.
External links
- Online guide to Requiem
- Requiem scores at IMSLP