Dies irae

For other uses, see Dies irae (disambiguation).

Centre panel from Memling's triptych Last Judgment (c. 1467–1471)

"Dies irae" (Latin pronunciation: [ˈdi.es ˈi.re]; "the Day of Wrath") is a Latin sequence attributed to either Thomas of Celano of the Franciscans (1200–1265) or to Latino Malabranca Orsini (d. 1294), lector at the Dominican studium at Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. The sequence dates from the 13th century at the latest, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin to St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), or Bonaventure (1221–1274).

It is a medieval Latin poem characterized by its accentual stress and rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic. The poem describes the Last Judgment, the 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 Roman Rite 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 reused as an independent song.

Use in the Roman liturgy

The "Dies irae" has been used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite liturgy as the sequence for the Requiem Mass for centuries, as made evident by the important place it holds in musical settings such as those by Mozart and Verdi. It appears in the Roman Missal of 1962, the last edition before the implementation of the revisions that occurred after the Second Vatican Council. As such, it is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated. It also formed part of the pre-conciliar liturgy of All Souls' Day.

In the reforms to the Catholic Church’s Latin liturgical rites ordered by the Second Vatican Council, the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy", the Vatican body charged with drafting and implementing the reforms (1969–70), eliminated the sequence as such from funerals and other Masses for the Dead. A leading figure in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, explains the rationale of the Consilium:

They got rid of texts that smacked of a negative spirituality inherited from the Middle Ages. Thus they removed such familiar and even beloved texts as "Libera me, Domine", "Dies irae", and others that overemphasized judgment, fear, and despair. These they replaced with texts urging Christian hope and arguably giving more effective expression to faith in the resurrection.

"Dies irae" remains as a hymn ad libitum in the Liturgy of the Hours during the last week before Advent, divided into three parts for the Office of Readings, Lauds and Vespers.

Text

The Latin text below is taken from the Requiem Mass in the 1962 Roman Missal. The first English version below, translated by William Josiah Irons in 1849, albeit from a slightly different Latin text, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. This translation, edited for more conformance to the official Latin, is approved by the Catholic Church for use as the funeral Mass sequence in the liturgy of the Anglican ordinariate. The second English version is a more formal equivalence translation.

	Original	Approved adaptation	Formal equivalence
I       II       III       IV       V       VI       VII       VIII       IX       X       XI       XII       XIII       XIV       XV       XVI       XVII       XVIII         XIX	Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet sæclum in favilla: Teste David cum Sibylla. Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando Iudex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus! Tuba, mirum spargens sonum Per sepulchra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum. Mors stupebit, et natura, Cum resurget creatura, Iudicanti responsura. Liber scriptus proferetur, In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus iudicetur. Iudex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet, apparebit: Nil inultum remanebit. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus, Cum vix iustus sit securus? Rex tremendæ maiestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis. Recordare, Iesu pie, Quod sum causa tuæ viæ: Ne me perdas illa die. Quærens me, sedisti lassus: Redemisti Crucem passus: Tantus labor non sit cassus. Iuste Iudex ultionis, Donum fac remissionis Ante diem rationis. Ingemisco, tamquam reus: Culpa rubet vultus meus: Supplicanti parce, Deus. Qui Mariam absolvisti, Et latronem exaudisti, Mihi quoque spem dedisti. Preces meæ non sunt dignæ: Sed tu bonus fac benigne, Ne perenni cremer igne. Inter oves locum præsta, Et ab hædis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra. Confutatis maledictis, Flammis acribus addictis, Voca me cum benedictis. Oro supplex et acclinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis: Gere curam mei finis. Lacrimosa dies illa, Qua resurget ex favílla Iudicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce, Deus: Pie Iesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. Amen.	Day of wrath and doom impending! David's word with Sibyl's blending, Heaven and earth in ashes ending! Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth, When from heaven the Judge descendeth, On whose sentence all dependeth. Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth; Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth; All before the throne it bringeth. Death is struck, and nature quaking, All creation is awaking, To its Judge an answer making. Lo, the book, exactly worded, Wherein all hath been recorded, Thence shall judgement be awarded. When the Judge his seat attaineth, And each hidden deed arraigneth, Nothing unavenged remaineth. What shall I, frail man, be pleading? Who for me be interceding, When the just are mercy needing? King of Majesty tremendous, Who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity, then befriend us! Think, kind Jesu! — my salvation Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation; Leave me not to reprobation. Faint and weary, Thou hast sought me, On the Cross of suffering bought me. Shall such grace be vainly brought me? Righteous Judge, for sin's pollution Grant Thy gift of absolution, Ere the day of retribution. Guilty, now I pour my moaning, All my shame with anguish owning; Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning! Through the sinful woman shriven, Through the dying thief forgiven, Thou to me a hope hast given. Worthless are my prayers and sighing, Yet, good Lord, in grace complying, Rescue me from fires undying. With Thy sheep a place provide me, From the goats afar divide me, To Thy right hand do Thou guide me. When the wicked are confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded, Call me with Thy saints surrounded. Low I kneel, with heart's submission, See, like ashes, my contrition, Help me in my last condition. Ah! that day of tears and mourning, From the dust of earth returning Man for judgement must prepare him, Spare, O God, in mercy spare him. Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest, Grant them Thine eternal rest. Amen.	The day of wrath, that day, will dissolve the world in ashes: (this is) the testimony of David along with the Sibyl. How great will be the quaking, when the Judge is about to come, strictly investigating all things! The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the sepulchres of the regions, will summon all before the throne. Death and nature will marvel, when the creature will rise again, to respond to the Judge. The written book will be brought forth, in which all is contained, from which the world shall be judged. When therefore the Judge will sit, whatever lies hidden, will appear: nothing will remain unpunished. What then shall I, poor wretch [that I am], say? Which patron shall I entreat, when [even] the just may [only] hardly be sure? King of fearsome majesty, Who gladly save those fit to be saved, save me, O fount of mercy. Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of Your journey: lest You lose me in that day. Seeking me, You rested, tired: You redeemed [me], having suffered the Cross: let not such hardship be in vain. Just Judge of vengeance, make a gift of remission before the day of reckoning. I sigh, like the guilty one: my face reddens in guilt: Spare the imploring one, O God. You Who absolved Mary, and heard the robber, gave hope to me also. My prayers are not worthy: but You, [Who are] good, graciously grant that I be not burned up by the everlasting fire. Grant me a place among the sheep, and take me out from among the goats, setting me on the right side. Once the cursed have been silenced, sentenced to acrid flames, Call me, with the blessed. [Humbly] kneeling and bowed I pray, [my] heart crushed as ashes: take care of my end. Tearful [will be] that day, on which from the glowing embers will arise the guilty man who is to be judged: Then spare him, O God. Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen.

Because the last two stanzas differ markedly in structure from the preceding stanzas, some scholars consider them to be an addition made in order to suit the great poem for liturgical use. The penultimate stanza, Lacrimosa, discards the consistent scheme of rhyming triplets in favour of a pair of rhyming couplets. The last stanza, Pie Iesu, abandons rhyme for assonance, and, moreover, its lines are catalectic.

In the liturgical reforms of 1969–71, stanza 19 was deleted and the poem divided into three sections: 1–6 (for Office of Readings), 7–12 (for Lauds) and 13–18 (for Vespers). In addition, "Qui Mariam absolvisti" in stanza 13 was replaced by "Peccatricem qui solvisti" so that that line would now mean, "You who absolved the sinful woman". This was because modern scholarship denies the common mediæval identification of the woman taken in adultery with Mary Magdalene, so Mary could no longer be named in this verse. In addition, a doxology is given after stanzas 6, 12 and 18:

Original	Approved adaptation	Formal equivalence
O tu, Deus majestatis, alme candor Trinitatis nos conjunge cum beatis. Amen.	O God of majesty nourishing light of the Trinity join us with the blessed. Amen.	You, God of majesty, gracious splendour of the Trinity conjoin us with the blessed. Amen.

Manuscript sources

The text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th-century manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III at Naples. It is a Franciscan calendar missal that must date between 1253 and 1255 for it does not contain the name of Clare of Assisi, who was canonized in 1255, and whose name would have been inserted if the manuscript were of later date.

Inspiration

A major inspiration of the hymn seems to have come from the Vulgate translation of Zephaniah 1:15–16:

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 tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high bulwarks. (Douay–Rheims Bible)

Other images come from the Book of Revelation, such as Revelation 20:11–15 (the book from which the world will be judged), Matthew 25:31–46 (sheep and goats, right hand, contrast between the blessed and the accursed doomed to flames), 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (trumpet), 2 Peter 3:7 (heaven and earth burnt by fire), and Luke 21:26 ("men fainting with fear... they will see the Son of Man coming").

From the Jewish liturgy, the prayer Unetanneh Tokef appears to be related: "We shall ascribe holiness to this day, For it is awesome and terrible"; "the great trumpet is sounded", etc.

Other translations

A number of English translations of the poem have been written and proposed for liturgical use. A very loose Protestant version was made by John Newton; it opens:

Day of judgment! Day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet's awful sound,
Louder than a thousand thunders,
Shakes the vast creation round!
How the summons will the sinner's heart confound!

Jan Kasprowicz, a Polish poet, wrote a hymn entitled "Dies iræ" which describes the Judgment day. The first six lines (two stanzas) follow the original hymn's metre and rhyme structure, and the first stanza translates to "The trumpet will cast a wondrous sound".

The American writer Ambrose Bierce published a satiric version of the poem in his 1903 book Shapes of Clay, preserving the original metre but using humorous and sardonic language; for example, the second verse is rendered:

Ah! what terror shall be shaping
When the Judge the truth's undraping –
Cats from every bag escaping!

The Rev. Bernard Callan (1750–1804), an Irish priest and poet, translated it into Gaelic around 1800. His version is included in a Gaelic prayer book, The Spiritual Rose.

Literary references

• Walter Scott used the first two stanzas in the sixth canto of his narrative poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805).
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used the first, the sixth and the seventh stanza of the hymn in the scene "Cathedral" in the first part of his drama Faust (1808).
• Oscar Wilde's "Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Iræ Sung in the Sistine Chapel" (Poems, 1881), contrasts the "terrors of red flame and thundering" depicted in the hymn with images of "life and love".
• In Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, Erik (the Phantom) has the chant displayed on the wall of his funereal bedroom.
• It is the inspiration for the title and major theme of the 1964 novel Deus Iræ by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny. The English translation is used verbatim in Dick's novel Ubik two years later.

Music

See also: Music for the Requiem Mass

Musical settings

The words of "Dies iræ" have often been set to music as part of the Requiem service. In some settings, it is broken up into several movements; in such cases, "Dies iræ" refers only to the first of these movements, the others being titled according to their respective incipits.

The original setting was a sombre plainchant (or Gregorian chant). It is in the Dorian mode. In four-line neumatic notation, it begins:

In 5-line staff notation:

The earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem does not include "Dies iræ". The first polyphonic settings to include the "Dies iræ" are by Engarandus Juvenis (1490) and Antoine Brumel (1516) to be followed by many composers of the renaissance. Later, many notable choral and orchestral settings of the Requiem including the sequence were made by composers such as Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, and Stravinsky. Giovanni Battista Martini ended his set of (mostly humorous) 303 canons with a set of 20 on extracts of the sequence poem.

Musical quotations

The traditional Gregorian melody has been used as a theme or musical quotation in many classical compositions, including:

• Thomas Adès – Totentanz (2013)
• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte) (1837)
• Eric Ball – "Resurgam" (1950)
• Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique (1830), Requiem (1837)
• Ernest Bloch – Suite Symphonique (1944)
• Johannes Brahms – Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, No. 6, Intermezzo in E-flat minor (1893)
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – 24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195: "XII. No hubo remedio" (plate 24) (1961)
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Prose des morts – Dies iræ H. 12 (1670)
• George Crumb – Black Angels (1970)
• Luigi Dallapiccola - Canti di prigionia
• Michael Daugherty – Metropolis Symphony 5th movement, "Red Cape Tango"; Dead Elvis for bassoon and chamber ensemble (1993)
• Ernő Dohnányi - no. 4 (E-flat minor) of "Four Rhapsodies" for Piano, op. 11
• Alexander Glazunov – From the Middle Ages Suite, No. 2 "Scherzo", Op. 79 (1902)
• Charles Gounod – Faust opera, act 4 (1859)
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 103, "The Drumroll" (1795)
• Gustav Holst – The Planets, movement 5, "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age"
• Arthur Honegger – La Danse des Morts, H. 131 (1938)
• Hans Huber quotes the melody in the second movement ("Funeral March") of his Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 118 (Heroic, 1908).
• Alexander Kastalsky – Requiem for Fallen Brothers, movements 3 and 4 (1917)
• Aram Khachaturian – Symphony No. 2 (1944)
• Teofil Klonowski - Preludes on Polish Church Hymns: Dies Irae (1867)
• György Ligeti – Le Grand Macabre (1974–77)
• Franz Liszt – Totentanz (1849)
• Jean-Baptiste Lully – Dies iræ LWV 64/1 (1683)
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2, movements 1 and 5 (1888–94)
• Jules Massenet - Eve (1874)
• Modest Mussorgsky – Songs and Dances of Death, No. 3 "Trepak" (1875)
• Nikolai Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 6, Op. 23 (1921–23); Piano Sonata No.2, Op.13
• Vítězslav Novák – used the theme near the end of his May Symphony
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 1 (1891); Symphony No. 1, Op. 13 (1895); Suite No. 2, Op. 17 (1901); Symphony No. 2, Op. 27 (1906–07); Piano sonata No. 1 (1908); Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 (1908); The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35 (1913); Études-Tableaux, Op. 39 No. 2, 7 (1916); Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 40 (1926); Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (1934); Symphony No. 3, Op. 44 (1935–36); Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940)
• Ottorino Respighi – quoted near the end of the second movement of Impressioni Brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) (1927)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre; Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony), Requiem (1878)
• Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14; Aphorisms, Op. 13 – No. 7, "Dance of Death" (1969)
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Sequentia cyclica super "Dies iræ" ex Missa pro defunctis (1948–49) and nine other works
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Modern Greek Song (In Dark Hell) Op. 16 No. 6 (1872); 6 Pieces on a Single Theme op 21 (1873); Orchestral Suite No. 3 (1884); Manfred Symphony (1885)
• Eugène Ysaÿe – Solo Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Obsession" (1923)
• Bernd Alois Zimmermann – Musique pour les soupers du roi Ubu

It has also been used in many film scores and popular works, such as:

• Bathory - on album Blood Fire Death (1988)
• Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind – Opening theme for The Shining (1980)
• Gerald Fried – Opening theme for The Return of Dracula, 1958
• Diamanda Galás – Masque of the Red Death: Part I – The Divine Punishment
• Jerry Goldsmith – The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
• Donald Grantham – Baron Cimetiére's Mambo (2004)
• Bernard Herrmann quoted in the main theme for Citizen Kane (1941)
• Bernard Herrmann – Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (quoted during the scene of the scattering of the hydra's teeth)
• Gottfried Huppertz – Score for Metropolis (1927)
• Jethro Tull – The instrumental track "Elegy" featured on the band's 12th studio album Stormwatch is based on the melody.
• Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen II (soundtrack), "Into the Unknown" (2019)
• Harry Manfredini – main title theme for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
• The Melvins - on their album "Nude with Boots" (2008)
• Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) soundtrack; "The Bells of Notre Dame" features passages from the first and second stanzas as lyrics.
• Ennio Morricone – "Penance" from his score for The Mission (1986)
• Lionel Newman - Compulsion (1959 film)
• Leonard Rosenman – the main theme of The Car (1977)
• Stephen Sondheim – Sweeney Todd – quoted in "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" and the accompaniment to "Epiphany" (1979)
• John Williams – "Old Man Marley" leitmotif from his score for Home Alone (1990)
• Hans Zimmer – "Rock House Jail" from The Rock soundtrack

External links

• Media related to Dies Irae at Wikimedia Commons
• Works related to Dies Irae at Wikisource
• "Dies Iræ", Franciscan Archive. Includes two Latin versions and a literal English translation.
• Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning (translation by William Josiah Irons)
• A website cataloging Musical Quotations of the Dies Irae plainchant melody in secular classical music