# Dies Irae



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Exactly how many freakin times has this plainchant been quoted or paraphrased by various composers?

Berlioz in Symphonie Fantastique
Liszt in Totentanz
Mahler in his 2nd symphony
Myaskovsky in his 2nd piano sonata
Rachmaninoff in everything
Sculthorpe in Memento Mori


I guess it's not that many...but I feel like I hear it everywhere lol. 

Can anyone think of other examples?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Saint-Saëns: symphony no. 3 "to the memory of Franz Liszt"


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## Guest (Jul 7, 2014)

I would love to hear Sorabji's seven hour "Sequentia cyclica sopra 'Dies irae' ex Missa pro defunctis" for solo piano. The Passacaglia movement contains 100 variations!!

EDIT: This fellow has created some performances of excerpts using Sibelius notation software. It's not a human, but it's better than a MIDI file!

http://www.davetubaking.com/8.html


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Kontrapunctus said:


> I would love to hear Sorabji's seven hour "Sequentia cyclica sopra 'Dies irae' ex Missa pro defunctis" for solo piano. The Passacaglia movement contains 100 variations!!
> 
> EDIT: This fellow has created some performances of excerpts using Sibelius notation software. It's not a human, but it's better than a MIDI file!
> 
> http://www.davetubaking.com/8.html


We should hold a fundraiser to have some pianist record a complete Sorabji piano works set on a major record label.

I wonder how much that would cost lol.


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## Guest (Jul 7, 2014)

I understand that Jonathan Powell plans to record Opus Clavicem Balisticum soon (I saw him play it in NY 10 years ago...wow!), and possibly the above mentioned Sequentia. I have no idea what it would cost for the complete works...maybe $150,000 for artist and studio time alone?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

It's also heard in Mahler's cantata Das Klagende Lied, in a very similar form to that in the Second (which, you have to remember, was written before the cantata was ever performed).


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Dallapiccola Canti di Prigionia - just had to listen to a bunch of Dallapicolla to check but I knew it was in there!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Penderecki
Verdi


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## pluhagr (Jan 2, 2012)

George Crumb "Black Angels"


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Saint-Saëns: symphony no. 3 "to the memory of Franz Liszt"


And also in the develop section of Danse Macabre, making a caricature of death perhaps!


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

If you're into film scores, you'd probably like Dreyer's Day of Wrath, the soundtrack features 'Dies Irae' as the main motto.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Wiki has a nice list including some film music.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Sondheim gave the tune to the chorus in "Sweeney Todd".


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I believe Rachmaninov owed his composing career to the Dies Irae.

Symphonies #'s 1-3, Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, The Bells, Symphonic Dances,
Isle of the Dead.

I'm creating a petition to change the name of the latter. So difficult to sell real estate on that isle.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Aaargh! I'm listening to Respighi's "Brazilian Impressions" and there it is in the second movement!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

My first thought was Rachmaninoff, of course. But Leonard Bernstein uses the theme in _West Side Story_, those four crashing notes at the very start of the musical. A lot of composers feature it.

Here's a list from Wikipedia (which I know only scratches the surface since I've heard the chant in many many pieces that are off the well-worn path):

The traditional Gregorian melody has also been used as a theme or musical quotation in a number of other classical compositions, notable among them:
Charles-Valentin Alkan - Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte)
Ernest Bloch - Suite Symphonique[10]
Hector Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique
George Crumb - Black Angels
Michael Daugherty - Metropolis Symphony 5th movement, "Red Cape Tango";[11]
Dead Elvis (1993) for bassoon and chamber ensemble[12]
Luigi Dallapiccola - Canti di prigionia
Danny Elfman - The Nightmare Before Christmas - quoted in "Jack's Lament" and "Making Christmas"[13]
Diamanda Galás - Masque of the Red Death: Part I - The Divine Punishment
Donald Grantham - Baron Cimetiére's Mambo[14]
Charles Gounod - Faust opera, act 4
Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 103, "The Drumroll"
Bernard Herrmann - Jason and the Argonauts (1963) - quoted during the scene of the scattering of the hydra's teeth
Gustav Holst - The Planets, movement 5, "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age"[15]
Arthur Honegger - La Danse des Morts, H. 131[16]
Aram Khachaturian - Symphony No. 2 in E minor
Franz Liszt - Totentanz
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 2, movements 1 and 5
Modest Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death, No.3 "Trepak"
Nikolai Myaskovsky - Symphony No. 6, Op. 23
Sergei Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 1, Op. 13; Symphony No. 2, Op. 27; Symphony No. 3, Op. 44; Isle of the Dead, Op. 29; The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43; Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Ottorino Respighi - quoted near the end of the second movement of Impressioni Brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions)[17]
Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 14
Stephen Sondheim - Sweeney Todd - quoted in the accompaniment to "Epiphany"[18]
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji - Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae" ex Missa pro defunctis and eight other works[19]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony,[20] Orchestral Suite No. 3[21]
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - 24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195: "XII. No hubo remedio" (plate 24)[22]
John Williams - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Eugène Ysaÿe - Solo Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Obsession"
Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Musique pour les soupers du roi Ubu


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Here's where I first became aware of that theme:


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Sonnet CLV has mentioned it. I just heard a snippet of the Dies Irae in the last movement of the second solo violin sonata of Eugène Ysaÿe.


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