Dies Irae

Traditional requiem texts, among them the anonymous medieval Latin poem Dies Irae ('Day of Wrath'), have inspired an untold number of composers in different ages and serving different religions, Western and Eastern. This book, the first comprehensive survey of requiem music for nearly half a century, provides a great deal of diverse and detailed information that will be of use to the professional musician, the musical scholar, the choral conductor, the theologian and liturgist, and the general reader.

Since time immemorial, the response of the living to death has been to commemorate the life of the departed through ceremonies and rituals. For nearly two millennia, the Christian quest for eternal peace has been expressed in a poetic-musical structure known as the requiem. Traditional requiem texts, among them the anonymous medieval Latin poem Dies Irae ('Day of Wrath'), have inspired an untold number of composers in different ages and serving different religions, Western and Eastern. This book, the first comprehensive survey of requiem music for nearly half a century, provides a great deal of diverse and detailed information that will be of use to the professional musician, the musical scholar, the choral conductor, the theologian and liturgist, and the general reader. The main body of the guide is a description of some 250 requiems. Each entry includes a concise biography of the composer and a description of the composition. Details of voicing, orchestration, editions, and discography are given. An extensive bibliography includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, prayer books, monographs, and articles. An appendix lists more than 1700 requiems not discussed within the main text.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Abbreviations
Chapter 4 Introduction
Chapter 5 1 The Gregorian Requiem Mass
Chapter 6 2 The Polyphonic Corsican Requiem
Chapter 7 3 The Renaissance and the Franco-Flemish School
Chapter 8 4 The High Renaissance
Chapter 9 5 The Baroque Requiem
Chapter 10 6 The Symphonic Requiem
Chapter 11 7 Romanticism
Chapter 12 8 The Twentieth Century
Chapter 13 9 Dies Irae
Chapter 14 10 Ein Deutsches Requiem: The German Requiem
Chapter 15 11 The Anglican Requiem
Chapter 16 12 The Byzantine-Greek Requiem
Chapter 17 13 The Russian Orthodox Panikhida
Chapter 18 14 The Serbian Orthodox Requiem: Opelo
Chapter 19 15 The Armenian Orthodox Requiem
Chapter 20 Appendix A: Dies Irae Melodies
Chapter 21 Appendix B: More Liturgical Requiems
Chapter 22 Bibliography
Chapter 23 Composer Index
Chapter 24 About the Author