The Book of Requiems, 1450-1550

Few western musical repertories speak more to the imagination than the Requiem mass for the dead. The Book of Requiems presents in-depth essays on the most important works in this tradition, from the origins of the genre up to the present day. Each chapter is devoted to a specific Requiem, and offers both historical information and a detailed work-discussion. Conceived as a multi-volume essay collection by leading experts, The Book of Requiems is an authoritative reference publication intended as a first port of call for musicologists, music theorists, and performers both professional and student.

The Requiem Mass and Sacred Jazz: A Study of catholic Liturgical Forms in the Genre of Sacred Jazz

<p>This exegesis examines the role of religious and spiritual influence on works by jazz composers as related to my composition, Requiem: a Suite of Jazz Orchestra, a jazz suite based on the Requiem Mass. The exegesis details the Catholic origins of the Requiem and the Mass as musical forms and traces their lineages into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as concert works and memorials not bound by liturgical function. These forms and their lineages frame the development of both religious and religion-inspired musical works in the cultural climate of 1960s America. In particular, I focus on two composers, Mary Lou Williams and Duke Ellington, both of whom composed large-scale sacred works related to the jazz idiom. This project situates religion, primarily Catholicism, and spirituality in the context of jazz composition, and discusses music composed in this vein, including my own work influenced by the Catholic liturgical tradition.</p>

The Requiem Mass and Sacred Jazz: A Study of catholic Liturgical Forms in the Genre of Sacred Jazz

<p>This exegesis examines the role of religious and spiritual influence on works by jazz composers as related to my composition, Requiem: a Suite of Jazz Orchestra, a jazz suite based on the Requiem Mass. The exegesis details the Catholic origins of the Requiem and the Mass as musical forms and traces their lineages into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as concert works and memorials not bound by liturgical function. These forms and their lineages frame the development of both religious and religion-inspired musical works in the cultural climate of 1960s America. In particular, I focus on two composers, Mary Lou Williams and Duke Ellington, both of whom composed large-scale sacred works related to the jazz idiom. This project situates religion, primarily Catholicism, and spirituality in the context of jazz composition, and discusses music composed in this vein, including my own work influenced by the Catholic liturgical tradition.</p>

Concepts and rituals of Orthodox originas and their dynamics in funeral and memorial rites of the Ludians

Introduction. The article reveals funeral and memorial rituals of the Ludian Karelians at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, which have Christian origins and exposes their further transformations. Materials and Methods. This research is based on an integrated approach to the humanities. The most valuable group of sources for the research is unpublished expeditionary materials, stored in the archives of the Republic of Karelia and Finland. Results and Discussion. The funeral and memorial tradition depends on Orthodox funeral complex of rites. Almost every aspect of the funeral, which has Orthodox semantics, find its own interpretation in mind of the Karelians, such as candles at a casket necessary to light a way for a deceased in the next world; the sacrament of penance obligatory for the living not to carry any sins of the dead; the requiem mass to grant peace to the departed soul and etc. A priest participated in all steps of funeral ceremony: from a confession to common wakes. In the Soviet era a priest’s role in burial practices of Karelian countryside begun to subside by elderly women who could read in Church Slavonic. Ludian burial practices contain some echoes of burial orgies (also known as “funny funerals”) and ancestor worship. Conclusion. Despite of atheistic propaganda and intense fighting of the Soviet State against religion, Christian funeral ceremonies continued to be observed by Ludian Karelians and preserved the features of the Pagan-Christian syncretism.

The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting

Chapter 1 explores the central role that the promise of universal resurrection and its enactment in the liturgy played in the constitution of the late medieval Christian community of faith. Together, it argues, raised voices and the promise of the resurrection of the dead created the ideal of a universal Christian community that was to remain forever united and that was bound together by a shared experience of ritual. The chapter presents a case study of the ways in which resurrection pervaded the aural, visual, and material culture of Nuremberg, particularly in the commemoration of the dead with the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead. Throughout the late medieval city, sounds, objects, and gestures defined a community of faith that was understood to encompass all Christians from the time of Christ until the apocalypse.

Benjamin Britten – War Requiem

The chapter begins with testimonies about the aesthetic impact of the War Requiem at the time of its premiere followed by a survey of war-themed musical compositions that preceded Britten’s work and Britten’s reflection of his pacifism in musical works such as the Sinfonia da Requiem op. 20. Discussion is then focused on the commission from Coventry Cathedral that led to the War Requiem; Britten’s choice of nine poems by the war-poet Wilfred Owen, which Britten interspersed with traditional texts from the Roman Requiem Mass; and the choice of three specific soloists to represent three countries involved in World War II. The music of Britten’s work is discussed in terms of musical and structural symbolism, particularly in Britten’s choice of the tritone interval to express tension. Performance practice concerns address the staging of the work into three distinct strata, the vocal characteristics of the original three soloists, and the intended acoustical environment of Britten’s conception.

“Judging Shepherd of Thy Sheep”: Christ and the Role of Mercy in the Dies Irae

The 13th century Latin hymn, Dies Irae, is one of the better-known Roman Catholic liturgical sequences, famous for its seemingly-dark portrayal of the Day of Judgment (“Day of Wrath”). Once a staple element of the Requiem Mass, this text has now been relegated to relative obscurity, finding life only in concert halls, where grandiose musical settings of Mozart’s & Verdi’s “Requiem Mass” are performed. In its absence, the Dies Irae is now synonymous with a bleak, medieval theology fixated on death and judgement. However, upon deeper examination, it seems that the “Day of Wrath” can also be read as a “Day of Mercy.” Sorrow for past transgressions and preoccupation with eternal hell constitute only one element of the hymn. Far from being focused on sin and death, the Dies Irae also establishes the vital connection between Christ’s mercy for sinners and the mercy each Christian is called to share with one another. This is seen through the numerous Scriptural allusions which fill the hymn, including those referencing that ‘final day’, when Christ is said to “judge the living and the dead.” In pleading to be on the right side during the separation between the metaphorical “sheep and goats,” the author acknowledges the significance of Christ and His command to love the “least of these” on the Day of Judgement (Matthew 25:40). The Dies Irae contains both a call for mercy and a call to mercy, the latter of which distinguishes itself as the litmus test of salvation.

Lux aeternas by Two Composers: Sacred and Profane in the Context of Genre Individualisation

Two pieces, both titled Lux aeterna, are works by György Ligeti and contemporary Slovenian composer Tadeja Vulc. The paper offers some thoughts on two pieces through the notion of genre. This point of view seems appropriate on account of Ligeti’s distinctive treatment of the sacred text, but even more on account of Tadeja Vulc’s work, a symphonic piece, which includes whispering the first words of Lux aeterna. This raises several questions, yet the main dilemma is how it came to be possible that pieces which originate from the genre realm of profane can easily embrace both title and text that used to mark a communio of a requiem mass.