Misplaced Pages

Dies irae

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ihcoyc (talk | contribs) at 15:16, 17 February 2003 (added Zephaniah quotation). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 15:16, 17 February 2003 by Ihcoyc (talk | contribs) (added Zephaniah quotation)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Dies Iræ is a famous Latin hymn written by Thomas of Celaeno. It opens with the words:

Dies Iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!

(Day of Wrath! Upon that day, the world will melt away, according to David and the Sibyl!)

The poem continues to describe the day of judgment, the last trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the good will be delivered and the evil will be cast into eternal flames. The inspiration of the hymn seems to have come from the Vulgate translation of Zephaniah I:15-16:

Dies iræ, dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis, dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas et super angulos excelsos.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. (KJV)

The hymn, set to a sombre Gregorian chant, was a part of the Roman Catholic Requiem service, the Mass for the dead. It also forms part of the liturgy of All Souls Day. The words have been set to music by many composers, usually as part of a requiem, of whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, and Hector Berlioz's versions are the most frequently performed.

The traditional Gregorian chant melody associated with the dies irae has also been quoted in a number of classical pieces, among them Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and several pieces by Sergei Rachmaninov, including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

External links