# Favorite Dies irae



## adriesba

A whole lot of composers have composed Requiems. Thus, many have composed a _Dies irae_. Which ones are your favorites?


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## Allegro Con Brio

I like to listen to the Mozart and Verdi _Diēs Īrae_s while I do jumping jacks before a workout. Nothing better to pump up the blood! 3rd place goes to Berlioz if you accept _Tuba Mirum_s - crank up the Bernstein recording which features the full instrumentation Berlioz called for (four antiphonal brass choirs, several bass drums and gongs) through a good hi-fi system and it feels like Judgment Day is descending upon your neighborhood. That said, I tend to prefer the Requiems that use the _Pie Jesū_.


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## Rogerx

:angel:


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## Enthusiast

I guess it depends on what sort of torments you prefer your recently departed loved ones to be put through.


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## Bwv 1080

Totentanz and Stravinsky's Octet


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## mikeh375

It has to be the Britten War Requiem for me...kicks Verdi's *** to my ears....


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## hammeredklavier

I think many people on this forum tend to overlook Johann Christian Bach, in favor of his older brother Carl Phillip Emmanuel, but Christian also wrote decent music. I find the use of austere-sounding polyphony in this piece skillful. Especially towards the ending, 34:27

[ 34:27 ]

34m27s





This is also good:


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## Rogerx

Enthusiast said:


> I guess it depends on what sort of torments you prefer your recently departed loved ones to be put through.


Unless the dearly departed asked playing this on his / her. funeral/ cremation .


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## caracalla

Verdi takes a pretty decent stab at it, but I'm not convinced that anyone tops Mozart in the Dies Irae department. Not that I'm especially pro-Mozart, but fair's fair. Has to be done with proper ferocity though. One of my favourite recordings of this is Marriner's first (1977), where he really lets his hair down for once.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Verdi and Mozart's visions of Judgment Day only have the proper effect on me when performed by Toscanini and Bernstein, respectively.


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## Bigbang

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Verdi and Mozart's visions of Judgment Day only have the proper effect on me when performed by Toscanini and Bernstein, respectively.


Well, if you have heard them all....

Anyway, I did hear Solti and was impressed on that part. I have Marriner/Karajan and some others and Verdi is Ok for me but maybe I need to listen again--Gardiner/Shaw.


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## DaddyGeorge

Best for me is Mozart, but I also like this


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## KenOC

Britten for me too, although the torments are right here at home and not in the afterlife.


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## Ulfilas

Nobody out-weirds Berlioz, I think he goes beyond the conventionally dramatic (as much as I love Mozart and Verdi) to the really unsettling and awe-some.


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## SixFootScowl

I don't know what a Dies irae is. I read two detailed books on the life of Rachmaninoff and my recollection is he used Dies irae a lot, but I am still mystified as to what this Dies irae, other than I think it is some dark and foreboding thing.


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## KenOC

SixFootScowl said:


> I don't know what a Dies irae is. I read two detailed books on the life of Rachmaninoff and my recollection is he used Dies irae a lot, but I am still mystified as to what this Dies irae, other than I think it is some dark and foreboding thing.


"Day of wrath and doom impending,
David's word with Sibyl's blending,
Heaven and earth in ashes ending."

Full text and translation *here*.


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## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "Day of wrath and doom impending,
> David's word with Sibyl's blending,
> Heaven and earth in ashes ending."
> 
> Full text and translation *here*.


Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Pretty depressing stuff! But then the potential is there for very dramatic music to accompany the verses!


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## adriesba

SixFootScowl said:


> Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Pretty depressing stuff! But then the potential is there for very dramatic music to accompany the verses!


I'm surprised that you didn't know what it was.  But then again, I only know very basic stuff about requiems and such. So I don't have much room to talk. :lol:

It's also worth mentioning that the Gregorian Chant melody for Dies irae has been a recurring melody in classical music. This Wikipedia page mentions pieces that have used the melody (I can't confirm that they're all accurate though): 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_irae

I know I've heard it in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and some film scores I think. It looks like Rachmaninoff used it in several pieces.

What you read about Rachmaninoff using was probably referring to him using the Gregorian Chant melody.

But yeah, it does have a rather negative focus.


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## Rogerx

SixFootScowl;1791109 said:


> I don't know what a Dies irae is. I read two detailed books on the life of Rachmaninoff and my recollection is he used Dies irae a lot, but I am still mystified as to what this Dies irae, other than I think it is some dark and foreboding thing.


the Day of Wrath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_irae


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## adriesba

This is the Gregorian Chant:


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## SixFootScowl

Rogerx said:


> the Day of Wrath
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_irae


Ah, this is making the connection. It says,



> The first melody set to these words, a Gregorian chant, is one of the most quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many composers.


EDIT: Never got into requiems other than Brahms German Requiem, which is not dismal, and probably won't get into other requiems.


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## Tasto solo

Zelenka's requiem for August the Strong is far from dismal!


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## CnC Bartok

There's a wonderful Dies Irae (vihan paiva in Finnish) in Aulis Sallinen's superb Songs of Life and Death, predictably a sort of danse macabre, but  none the worse for that!

Away from his operas (maybe not, actually?) I reckon it's his masterpiece.


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## Bwv 1080




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## Bwv 1080




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## ahinton

Sorabji: _Sequenta Cyclica super Dies Iræ ex Missa pro Defunctis ad Clavicembali Usum_ (1948-49); the recording, played by pianist Jonathan Powell, was released earlier this year on Piano Classics, PCL10206. It's a 7-CD box set. The work is a set of variations and a fugue on the entire plainchant, which is rare, as most composers who have quoted the _Dies Iræ_ have usually referred only to its first two phrases.

Highly recommended and very positively reviewed.


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## ahinton

_Sequent*i*a Cyclica_. Sorry!


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## ORigel

Berlioz from his Requiem AND Symphonie Fantastique

Verdi


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## Rogerx

Verdi's hands down


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## level82rat

Michael Haydn's is the best of the best. (starts at 6:26)


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## hammeredklavier

J.A. Hasse: Requiem in E-flat major (1764) - Dies irae




 (10:50 ~ 15:24)


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## starthrower

Penderecki on a Naxos CD paired with symphony no.8 and conducted by Antoni Wit.


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## Bxnwebster

*Nunes García:* Requiem


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