Dies irae: lyrics and translation
- Dies irae, dies illa,Day of wrath, that dayThe strings tremble: this is the "tremor" the text will soon name.
- solvet saeclum in favilla,will dissolve the world in ashes,
- teste David cum Sibylla.as David and the Sibyl testify.
- Quantus tremor est futurus,How great a trembling there will be,At "quantus tremor" - "what trembling there will be" - the choir suddenly drops almost to a whisper.
- quando judex est venturus,when the Judge comes
- cuncta stricte discussurus!to examine everything strictly!The music stops in mid-movement, before it reaches an ending: the next words will be sung in the next movement.
Press Play or the space bar: the singers and players sounding at that moment light up on stage, and the words appear here. Meanwhile, tap any group to find out who they are.
Manuscript: the first page of the Dies irae
Leaf 65 of Mozart's working score. The day of wrath begins here - six movements on one long medieval poem. Mozart did not live to write the orchestral parts: he set down the voices, the bass and a few separate lines, and others filled in the rest. To tell the hands apart, the notes that are not his were later circled in pencil.
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About
Choir, trumpets, timpani and strings all come in together, from the very first note, with no introduction. From there the whole choir speaks the words in one rhythm, all at once, like a single voice. A minute and a half, two at most - and the music stops, never reaching any calm.
There is no introduction: from the first bar the choir, trumpets and timpani are all there. The strings tremble with fast notes without pause, and the choir speaks the words all together, in one rhythm, as if reading out a verdict. At "Quantus tremor" the volume suddenly drops, and that quiet trembling is more frightening than a shout. After the last line the music does not settle; it stops in mid-movement.
Worth knowing
The text calls two witnesses to the day of wrath: King David from the Bible and the Sibyl, a seeress from Greek and Roman legend. The church poem puts them side by side on purpose: the end of the world was foretold by our own and by strangers alike, so there are no grounds for doubt.
There is an old church melody for "Dies irae" that films still reach for whenever they need to signal death or disaster. Mozart does not use it: the music here is entirely his own.
The poem about the day of wrath was written in the 13th century and is attributed to the friar Thomas of Celano. In the 1960s the Catholic church removed it from the funeral service: it was decided that the dead should be seen off with words of hope rather than of fear. So what you hear in the Requiem is no longer heard in church today.
The poem is long: seventeen stanzas of three lines each and a few closing lines. Singing it straight through would take too long, so Mozart divided it into six movements, from Dies irae to Lacrimosa. That is why the day of wrath lasts almost half an hour in this work.
After Mozart, dozens of composers set the same poem, and each heard it differently: in Verdi it is the loudest moment of the entire requiem, with blows on the bass drum, while Berlioz placed four separate brass groups in the corners of the hall. Against them you can hear how restrained Mozart is: a choir and a small orchestra are enough for him.
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Quiet here so far. Yours would be the first.