As we get ready for our staging of Mozart’s Requiem in collaboration with Phoenix Dance Theatre, here’s a look at what a Requiem is, and how it has developed…
A Requiem is a Catholic mass for the dead, originally intended for funeral services. The name comes from the first line: ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine’ — ‘Grant them eternal rest, Lord’.
However, the Requiem Mass has inspired many musical compositions over the centuries — over 2,000 to the present day! From the 18th Century onwards, various composers were inspired to score their versions for choral and orchestral forces so massive — some practically operatic — that they couldn’t possibly be performed as part of a normal funeral. These became concert works, and the ‘Requiem’ evolved into a genre all of its own.
Texts often included are:
Introit
Kyrie eleison
Dies Irae
Offertory
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Communion
Pie Jesu
Libera Me
In paradisum
Not all composers chose to set every part of the Catholic liturgy to music, some used other text as well or instead, and as time went on, other musical works treating death or mourning without any religious links at all also became known as a ‘Requiem’.
What they all do is immortalise a composer’s ideas about passing and what comes afterwards for both the dead and the living — while leaving us with some of the most famous, most dramatic and most ethereally beautiful moments in all of Western classical music! Here are some extracts from notable Requiems that you might recognise…