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A requiem is a Roman Catholic mass performed in commemoration of the dead, also known in Latin as the Missa pro Defunctis. It is used as a funeral service, and is also performed as part of the liturgy of All Souls Day (which occurs annually, on November 2). Roman Catholics believe that masses performed on behalf of the dead in Purgatory can shorten their stay there and speed their entry into heaven. A requiem is also a musical composition that sets the texts and hymns used in the Catholic ritual (or other such religious ceremony) to music. Ordinarily, various texts in the mass such as the Introit or Gradual are changed from one day to the next according to the Church calendar; but in a requiem mass, these texts are fixed. They are dramatic in character, and as such have appealed to many composers. Requiem also refers to a chess engine. See Requiem (chess).
The Roman Catholic serviceThis use of the word requiem comes from the opening words of the Introit: Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may everlasting light shine upon them.) The requiem mass differs from the ordinary mass in omitting certain joyful passages such as the alleluia, and by the addition of various hymns such as the Dies Iræ. The regular texts to be found in the Roman Catholic liturgy, laid down at the Tridentine Council, are the following:
The Gloria and Credo are not found in the Requiem mass, as these are viewed as being overly joyful texts. Musical compositionsFor many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung to Gregorian melodies. The first polyphonic setting is believed to have been composed by Ockeghem around 1460; his requiem is believed to predate another setting by the elder composer Dufay, but Dufay's setting is unfortunately lost. 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. Over 2000 requiems have been composed to the present day. Many of the Renaissance settings may be performed without instruments, or a cappella, whereas beginning around 1600 composers more often preferred to use instruments to accompany a choir, and also include vocal soloists. There is great variation between compositions in how much of liturgical text is set to music: many composers omit the Gradual; one school of French composers (led by Fauré) omitted the Dies iræ for stylistic reasons, while the very same text had often been set by French composers in previous centuries as a stand-alone work. Some composers have added parts of the burial service (which in the case of a funeral follows after the mass) to conclude the requiem, while others have inserted additional movements to be sung in the course of the requiem, such as the devotional motet Pie Iesu in the settings of Fauré, Duruflé, and Lloyd Webber. The two additional texts from the burial service are:
The Pie Iesu combines paraphrases of the final verse of the Dies Iræ and the Agnus Dei.
Beginning in the 18th century and continuing through the 19th, many composers wrote what are effectively concert requiems, 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 of Gossec, Berlioz, Verdi, and Dvořák are essentially dramatic concert oratorios. A counter-reaction to this tendency was the Cecilian movement, which recommended restrained accompaniment for liturgical music, and frowned upon the use of operatic vocal soloists. Non-Catholic requiemsRequiem is also used to describe any sacred composition that sets religious texts that would be appropriate at a funeral, or to describe such compositions for liturgies other than the Roman Catholic mass. Among the earliest examples of this type are the German requiems composed in the 17th century by Schütz and Praetorius, whose works are Lutheran adaptations of the Catholic requiem, and which provided inspiration for the mighty German Requiem by Brahms. A rather exhaustive list of requiem composers can be found on this site (http://www.requiemsurvey.org). Such non-Catholic requiems would include:
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer contains seven texts which are collectively known as "funeral sentences"; several composers have written settings of these seven texts, which are generally known collectively as a "burial service." Composers who have set the Anglican burial service to music include Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, and Henry Purcell. The text of these seven sentences, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, is:
20th century developmentsIn 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. The several Holocaust requiems may be regarded as a specific subset of this type. Lastly, the 20th century saw the development of secular requiems, written for public performance without specific religious observance, and 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. Requiem composersRenaissance
Baroque
Classical period
Romantic era
Post-romantic
German requiemsEnglish requiems
External links
da:Rekviem de:Requiem fr:Requiem ko:레퀴엠 it:Requiem la:Requiem nl:Requiem ja:レクイエム no:Rekviem pl:Requiem (muzyka) |
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