Verdi's Requiem: A Musical and Historical Exploration, Lecture notes of Latin

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A Guide to

Verdi’s Requiem

Created by Dr. Mary Jane Ayers

You may have heard that over the last 29 years, the Sarasota Opera produced ALL of the operatic works of composer Guiseppi Verdi, including some extremely famous ones, Aida , Otello , and Falstaff. But Verdi, an amazing opera composer, is also responsible for the creation of one of the most often performed religious works ever written, the Verdi Requiem.

Like many of his operas, Verdi’s Requiem is written for a massive group of performers, including a double chorus, large orchestra, and four soloists: a soprano, a mezzo-soprano (a medium high female voice), a tenor, and a bass. The solos written for the Requiem require singers with rich, full, ‘operatic’ voices. So what is a requiem, and why would Verdi choose to compose one?

Drawing of the second night’s performance of the Verdi Requiem, 1874

The worship service of the Catholic Church is called a ‘mass.’ There are various kinds of masses that celebrate important days and events in the church, including a special mass that is said for those who have died. This is known as a ‘requiem’ mass.

The words of the mass were created hundreds of years ago as religious chants. Priests spoke the texts in Latin, since Latin was the language of ancient Rome, where the Roman Catholic Church developed. Eventually the chants were set to music, and over the next ten centuries composers wrote thousands of settings of the

texts of the mass. The purpose of the requiem mass is to ask God to give rest to the souls of the dead. The title “requiem” comes from the first word of the Latin phrase, Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine , ( pronounced : reh- qui-em ay-tare-nahm doh-nah ay-ees, daw- mee-nay) which translates, Rest eternal grant them, Lord.

Gregorian chant version of the beginning of a Requiem, composed 10 th^ century

So why did Verdi decide to write a requiem mass? In 1869, Verdi lost his friend, the great composer Giacomo Rossini. Verdi worked with other composers to cobble together a requiem with each composer writing a different section of the mass, but that did not work out. Four years later another friend died, and Verdi decided to keep what he had already composed and complete the rest of the entire requiem. The first performance of the Verdi Requiem was May 22, 1874. Nearly all of the classical composers of the 16 th^ , 17th^ , 18th^ , and 19 th^ centuries composed masses, and Verdi’s is one of the grandest. It is so majestic that it is nearly always performed in a concert rather than as a religious service.

Verdi’s Life Giuseppi Verdi (pronounced Ju-sep-pee Ver- dee) (1813 - 1901) was born on October 9, in the Duchy of Parma in what is now Italy. A Duchy is a small country ruled by a Duke or Duchess rather than a king or queen. Verdi’s father owned a tavern, and Verdi’s first musical experience was as a street singer. A local

The Requiem- Let’s look at the Music

Listen to this section of the Verdi Requiem on YouTube. Google “Verdi Requiem Dies Irae” and you will find several versions. Listen to more than one. You will discover that conductors have different ideas about how fast Allegro agitato is supposed to be!

The musical example shown here is from the second section of the requiem mass, called the ‘Sequence.’ You are looking at the first page of the ‘piano score’ (which means the orchestral music is rewritten so the piano can accompany the chorus and soloists) for Dies irae (dee-ace ee-ray - Day of Wrath). In this part the composer uses the chorus and orchestra to paint a musical picture of Judgment Day, when Christians believe that God in his anger will send sinners to Hell. The music is loud, fast, and high. Notice the words ‘Allegro agitato.’ Allegro means lively, and agitato means agitated-- nervous, worried. When you listen to the orchestra play this part, you will hear very loud and accented percussion attacks on the rests in measures one and two. That makes the music sound as if God’s fury is pounding straight into the heart of the listener.

Notice the key signature of two flats. That means the piece is in either the key of Bb Major or G minor. Look at the chords in measures one and two of the piano part on the previous page--they are both G minor chords. Also, the anger and pain expressed in the text are more like to fit a minor key than a major key. So assume that the key is G minor. Note that the dynamic marking for each page is fortissimo - ff - very loud. Look at measures 5, 6, and 7 and measures 15, 16, 17, and 18. The soprano, alto, and tenor chorus parts divide, so some singers are singing a single, sustained ‘G’, while others are moving in a unison melody that is wildly expressive and exciting.

The complete text for this small section of the requiem mass is:

Dies irae, Dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla. Quantus tremor est futures, Quando Judex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discusurus.

This can be translated as: Day of wrath, Day of mourning, See fulfilled the warning of David with Sibyll. Heaven and earth will be burning. What fear will rend men’s hearts When from heaven the Judge descends, Giving his sentence.