Eternal rest, perpetual light and the Last Judgement: Antoine Brumel’s Dies irae in the early Requiem tradition

Antoine Brumel’s Missa pro defunctis is one of the earliest polyphonic Requiem settings, and the first by several decades to include the sequence, Dies irae. Whereas most chants in the Mass for the Dead were set c.1500 to the low-pitched, highly consonant polyphony that denoted mourning and penitence at the time, the Dies irae is a musical portrayal of the Last Judgement that might seem to demand more vivid polyphonic treatment. And yet Brumel’s setting, a grand alternatim movement, responds more to the formal regularity of the chant than to its text, which describes a terrifying scene much like what is seen in contemporaneous visual depictions of the Last Judgement. Indeed, Brumel’s most striking rhetorical moment comes not in the frightening early verses of the sequence but in its concluding plea to Christ that the dead be granted peace. Analysis of Brumel’s Dies irae in the context of his Missa pro defunctis, therefore, shows that early Requiem compositions, even at their most terrifying, serve first and foremost as functional pleas to God that the deceased be granted eternal rest and perpetual light.

Δημήτρης Λιάλιος (1869-1940)

Η διατριβή αυτή παρουσιάζει το έργο και τη ζωή του συνθέτη Δημήτρη Λιάλιου (1869-1940) του οποίου η συμβολή στη νεοελληνική σύνθεση είναι εξαιρετικά σημαντική. Είναι ο πρώτος νεοέλληνας συνθέτης της ηπειρωτικής Ελλάδας που έγραψε συμφωνικό έργο (Όνειρο μεσονυκτίου), μεγάλο χορωδιακό ορχηστρικό έργο (Missa pro Defunctis) και καλλιέργησε συστηματικά τα είδη της μουσικής δωματίου (4 κουαρτέτα εγχόρδων και τρίο με πιάνο). Έζησε και δημιούργησε στην Πάτρα, την Αθήνα και το Μόναχο. Η διατριβή αποτελεί μια ιστορικομουσικολογική μελέτη και βασίζεται κυρίως σε πρωτογενείς πηγές. Επιπλέον περιλαμβάνει ένα εκτελεστικό μέρος. Επικεντρώνεται στο βιολιστικό έργο του συνθέτη, το οποίο είναι μεγάλο και δεξιοτεχνικό. Στο πρώτο μέρος περιγράφεται η ζωή του συνθέτη χωρισμένη σε πέντε περιόδους. Το δεύτερο μέρος περιλαμβάνει τον πλήρη και αναλυτικό κατάλογο των έργων του. Το τρίτο μέρος περιέχει την επιμελημένη έκδοση των έξι παρακάτω έργων για βιολί και πιάνο: Illusion, Mein Leid, Ballade no. 1, Ballade no. 2, Tanzballade no. 1 «Smyrna», Σονάτα σε Λα ελάσσονα, ενώ στο τέταρτο μέρος ακολουθεί η ηχογράφηση αυτών των έργων. Στο παράρτημα παρατίθεται το χρονολόγιο της καλλιτεχνικής δραστηριότητας του συνθέτη, με πολλά στοιχεία από τις πρωτογενείς πηγές.

Manuscripts of Requiem by foreign composers in the Vilnius libraries’ funds: an overview of 19th – beginning of 20th century sources

Among numerous genres of sacred music (such as chorales, hymns, motets, masses, etc.), Requiem, or otherwise Missa pro defunctis, Missa defunctorum (Mass for the Deceased) stands out. It is the Mass for the Deceased, corresponding to the Roman Catholic Missal, that is celebrated mainly during the funeral. Over time, Requiem has become a vocal-instrumental genre, a composition associated with the theme of death and mourning. In the 19th century, two principal forms of the genre of Requiem co-existed: a proud, concert-type form, heavily influenced by secular music, and a more modest, reserved, and more “traditional” liturgical one. The latter was smaller in scope, written for a more modest composition of performers in a simpler music language and of a non-dramatic character. The development of the liturgical Requiem over the period in question was largely affected by the Cecilian Movement, active also in Lithuania. True, it is also possible to discuss an intermediate link between the concert and the liturgical types of Requiem – a concert-type vocal-instrumental Requiem, which could also be performed in liturgy. The paper focuses on the manuscripts of the Requiem compositions re-written in the 19th century that were once performed in churches of Vilnius and other cities of Lithuania and currently are stored in in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania and in the Manuscript Department of the Vilnius University Library. These are copies of the Requiem compositions by the following authors: Gioacchino Albertini (1748–1812), Josef Becher (1821–1888), Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842), Max Filke (1855–1911), Joseph Gruber (1855–1933), Lambert Kraus (1728–1790), Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792), and Johann Baptist Schiedermayr (1779–1840).

The Poetry is the Pity: The War Requiem and Poetic Consolation

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem sets nine of Wilfred Owen’s war poems alongside the words of the Missa pro defunctis, allowing these texts to interrogate and comment on each other. Owen’s poems describe the horrors of trench warfare, and often, harshly indict both church and state for their complicity in war-mongering. Scholars such as Philip Rupprecht, Heather Wiebe, David B. Greene, and George D. Herbert have explored how Owen’s texts work to subvert the text of the Mass, and deny religious and musical consolation. Such readings place the War Requiem in line with Owen’s preface to his Collected Poems, in which he rejects consolatory mourning. This article, however, suggests that moments in the War Requiem work to deconstruct Owen’s preface. Britten’s juxtaposition of Owen’s poems with the text of the Missa pro defunctis, specifically in the Agnus Dei and Libera me, works to undermine Owen’s poetic goals as outlined in the preface, bringing out irony not immediately apparent in Owen’s work. This article closely examines Owen’s poems in the context of Britten’s settings and compares Owen’s poems to their Latin counterparts. It reveals moments in which Britten’s text setting alters the implications of Owen’s words to allow moments of consolatory mourning that directly contradict Owen’s purported poetic goals and cast doubt on the possibility of completely non-consolatory mourning. It concludes that the War Requiem offers a new kind of consolation, in which the acknowledgement of the impossibility of musical and poetic consolation becomes a tool to confront grief.