“Dies Iræ”. The Sequence In A Requiem Mass (Mass For The Dead).

“Dies Iræ”.

The Sequence In A Requiem Mass

(Mass For The Dead).

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“Dies Irae” (“The Day of Wrath”) is a Latin Sequence, attributed to either Thomas of Celano of The Franciscans (1200 – circa 1265) or to Latino Malabranca Orsini (☩ 1294), Lector at The Dominican Studium, at Santa Sabina, Rome, the forerunner of The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, in Rome.

The Sequence dates from at least the 13th-Century, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin to Saint Gregory the Great (☩ 604 A.D.), Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), or, Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274).

The Last Judgement.

Artist: Hans Memling (circa 1433 –1494).

Collection: National Museum, Gdansk, Poland.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art

(Wikimedia Commons)

It is a Mediæval Latin Poem, characterised by its accentual stress and rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic. The Poem describes The Last Judgment, a trumpet summoning Souls before The Throne of God, where The Saved will be delivered, and The Unsaved cast into Eternal Flames.

It is best known from its use in The Requiem (Mass for The Dead, or, Funeral Mass). An English version is found in various Anglican Communion Service Books.

The first melody set to these words, a Gregorian Chant, is one of the most quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many composers. The final couplet “Pie Jesu” has been often re-used as an independent Hymn.