from the centre panel of the
Memling Triptych in
Gdańsk.]]
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) is a famous thirteenth century
Latin hymn thought to be written by
Thomas of Celano. It is a
medieval Latin poem characterized by its
accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The
metre is
trochaic. The poem describes the
day of judgment, the last
trumpet summoning souls before the throne of
God, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames.
The hymn is best known from its use as a sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. It was removed from the ordinary form of the Roman Rite mass in the liturgical reform of 1969–1970, but was retained as a hymn of the Divine Office. It can also still be heard when the 1962 form of the Mass is used. An English version of it is found in various missals used in the Anglican Communion.
Use in the Catholic liturgy
Those familiar with musical settings of the Requiem Mass—such as those by
Mozart or
Verdi—will be aware of the important place
Dies Iræ held in the liturgy. Nevertheless the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy" – the Vatican body charged with drafting and implementing reforms to the Catholic
Liturgy ordered by the
Second Vatican Council – felt the funeral rite was in need of reform and eliminated the sequence from the ordinary rite. The architect of these reforms, Archbishop
Annibale Bugnini, explains the mind of the members 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 the
Libera me, Domine, the
Dies Iræ, 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.
It remained as the sequence for the Requiem Mass in the Roman Missal of 1962 (the last edition before the Second Vatican Council) and so is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated.
The Dies Irae is still suggested in the Liturgy of the Hours during last week before Advent as the opening hymn for the Office of Readings, Lauds and Vespers (divided into three parts).
The 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, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. The second English version is a more
formal equivalence.
{|
|valign=top|1||Dies iræ ! dies illaSolvet sæclum in favilla:Teste David cum Sibylla !
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Day of wrath! O day of mourning!See fulfilled the prophets' warning,Heaven and earth in ashes burning!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|The day of wrath, that dayWill dissolve the world in ashesAs foretold by David and the sibyl!
|-
|valign=top|2||Quantus tremor est futurus,Quando iudex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus !
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth,when from heaven the Judge descendeth,on whose sentence all dependeth.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|How much tremor there will be,when the judge will come,investigating everything strictly!
|-
|valign=top|3||Tuba, mirum spargens sonumPer sepulchra regionum,Coget omnes ante thronum.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth;through earth's sepulchers it ringeth;all before the throne it bringeth.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|The trumpet, scattering a wondrous soundthrough the sepulchres of the regions,will summon all before the throne.
|-
|valign=top|4||Mors stupebit, et natura,Cum resurget creatura,Iudicanti responsura.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Death is struck, and nature quaking,all creation is awaking,to its Judge an answer making.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Death and nature will marvel,when the creature arises,to respond to the Judge.
|-
|valign=top|5||Liber scriptus proferetur,In quo totum continetur,Unde mundus iudicetur.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Lo! the book, exactly worded,wherein all hath been recorded:thence shall judgment be awarded.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|The written book will be brought forth,in which all is contained,from which the world shall be judged.
|-
|valign=top|6||Iudex ergo cum sedebit,Quidquid latet, apparebit:Nil inultum remanebit.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|When the Judge his seat attaineth,and each hidden deed arraigneth,nothing unavenged remaineth.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|When therefore the judge will sit,whatever hides will appear:nothing will remain unpunished.
|-
|valign=top|7||Quid sum miser tunc dicturus ?Quem patronum rogaturus,Cum vix iustus sit securus ?
|style="padding-left:2em;"|What shall I, frail man, be pleading?Who for me be interceding,when the just are mercy needing?
|style="padding-left:2em;"|What am I, miserable, then to say?Which patron to ask,when [even] the just may [only] hardly be sure?
|-
|valign=top|8||Rex tremendæ maiestatis,Qui salvandos salvas gratis,Salva me, fons pietatis.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|King of Majesty tremendous,who dost free salvation send us,Fount of pity, then befriend us!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|King of tremendous majesty,who freely savest those that have to be saved,save me, source of mercy.
|-
|valign=top|9||Recordare, Iesu pie,Quod sum causa tuæ viæ:Ne me perdas illa die.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Think, good Jesus, my salvationcost thy wondrous Incarnation;leave me not to reprobation!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Remember, merciful Jesus,that I am the cause of thy way:lest thou lose me in that day.
|-
|valign=top|10||Quærens me, sedisti lassus:Redemisti Crucem passus:Tantus labor non sit cassus.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Faint and weary, thou hast sought me,on the cross of suffering bought me.shall such grace be vainly brought me?
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Seeking me, thou sat tired:thou redeemed [me] having suffered the Cross:let not so much hardship be lost.
|-
|valign=top|11||Iuste iudex ultionis,Donum fac remissionisAnte diem rationis.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Righteous Judge! for sin's pollutiongrant thy gift of absolution,ere the day of retribution.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Just judge of revenge,give the gift of remissionbefore the day of reckoning.
|-
|valign=top|12||Ingemisco, tamquam reus:Culpa rubet vultus meus:Supplicanti parce, Deus.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Guilty, now I pour my moaning,all my shame with anguish owning;spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|I sigh, like the guilty one:my face reddens in guilt:Spare the supplicating one, God.
|-
|valign=top|13||Qui Mariam absolvisti,Et latronem exaudisti,Mihi quoque spem dedisti.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Thou the sinful woman savedst;thou the dying thief forgavest;and to me a hope vouchsafest.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Thou who absolved Mary,and heardest the robber,gavest hope to me, too.
|-
|valign=top|14||Preces meæ non sunt dignæ:Sed tu bonus fac benigne,Ne perenni cremer igne.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Worthless are my prayers and sighing,yet, good Lord, in grace complying,rescue me from fires undying!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|My prayers are not worthy:however, thou, Good [Lord], do good,lest I am burned up by eternal fire.
|-
|valign=top|15||Inter oves locum præsta,Et ab hædis me sequestra,Statuens in parte dextra.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|With thy favored sheep O place me;nor among the goats abase me;but to thy right hand upraise me.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Grant me a place among the sheep,and take me out from among the goats,setting me on the right side.
|-
|valign=top|16||Confutatis maledictis,Flammis acribus addictis:Voca me cum benedictis.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|While the wicked are confounded,doomed to flames of woe unboundedcall me with thy saints surrounded.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Once the cursed have been rebuked,sentenced to acrid flames:Call thou me with the blessed.
|-
|valign=top|17||Oro supplex et acclinis,Cor contritum quasi cinis:Gere curam mei finis.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Low I kneel, with heart submission,see, like ashes, my contrition;help me in my last condition.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|I meekly and humbly pray,[my] heart is as crushed as the ashes:perform the healing of mine end.
|-
|valign=top|18||Lacrimosa dies illa,qua resurget ex favillaiudicandus homo reus.Huic ergo parce, Deus:
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Ah! that day of tears and mourning!From the dust of earth returningman for judgment must prepare him;Spare, O God, in mercy spare him!
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Tearful will be that day,on which from the ashes arisesthe guilty man who is to be judged.Spare him therefore, God.
|-
|valign=top|19||
Pie Iesu Domine,dona eis requiem. Amen.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|Lord, all pitying, Jesus blest,grant them thine eternal rest. Amen.
|style="padding-left:2em;"|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 favor of a pair of rhyming couplets. The last stanza
Pie Jesu abandons rhyme for assonance, and, moreover, its lines are
catalectic.
In 1970, the Dies Iræ was removed from the Missal and since 1971 has been proposed ad libitum as a hymn for the Liturgy of the Hours at the Office of Readings, Lauds and Vespers. For this purpose stanza 19 was deleted and the poem divided into three sections: 1–6 (for the 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 freed/absolved the sinful woman". In addition a doxology is given after stanzas 6, 12 and 18:
Manuscript sources
The oldest text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th century manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples. It is a
Franciscan calendar missal that must date between 1253–1255 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.
Musical settings
In four-line
neumatic notation, the
Gregorian chant of the sequence begins:
In 5-line staff notation, the same appears:
The words have often been set to music as part of the Requiem service, originally as a sombre plainchant. It also formed part of the traditional Catholic liturgy of All Souls' Day. Music for the Requiem Mass has been composed by many composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as Hector Berlioz, Giuseppe Verdi, and Igor Stravinsky.
The traditional Gregorian melody has also been used as a musical quotation in a number of other classical compositions, among them:
Charles-Valentin Alkan – Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte)
Ernest Bloch –
Suite Symphonique
Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique
George Crumb – Black Angels
Michael Daugherty –
Metropolis Symphony 5th movement, "Red Cape Tango";
Diamanda Galás – Masque Of The Red Death: Part I – The Divine Punishment
Charles Gounod – Faust opera, Act IV
Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 103, "The Drumroll"
Franz Liszt – Totentanz
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2, movements 1, 3, and 5
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1, Op. 13; Symphony No. 2, Op. 27; Symphony No. 3, Op. 44; Isle of the Dead, Op. 29; The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43; Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Camille Saint-Saëns – Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony")
Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14
Stephen Sondheim –
– quoted in "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" and the accompaniment to "Epiphany"
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Variazioni e fuga triplice sopra "Dies iræ" per pianoforte (1923–26); Sequentia cyclica super "Dies iræ" ex Missa pro defunctis in clavicembali usum (1948–49)
Eugène Ysaÿe – Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Obsession"
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 "" in the first part of his drama Faust (1808).
Italian poet Giuseppe Giusti composed in 1835 the satirical poem Il "Dies iræ" on the occasion of the death of Francis II, Emperor of Austria.
In José Rizal's 1887 novel Noli Me Tangere, the last two lines of the sixth stanza of the hymn ("Quidquid latet, apparebit, Nil inultum remanebit") are used as the title of the 54th chapter of his novel, depicting how Elias discovers who the descendant of the man who ruined their family is.
Oscar Wilde composed a Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel, contrasting 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.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem in opposition to the classical Requiem and in particular to the Dies Irae, which he found "vengeful and sadistic" (and mistakenly reputed a "piece of poetry by committee from the Council of Trent"). His Requiem was set to music by Edgar David Grana.
Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V. includes direct references to Dies Irae in chapter 9 – "Somewhere in the house (though he may have dreamed that too) a chorus had begun singing a Dies Irae in plainsong."
Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 novel has the main character, David Bowman, listening to a recording of it on the spaceship Discovery One on his way to Saturn.
The title of the 1976 novel Deus Irae, a collaboration between Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, is a play on the name of the hymn Dies Irae.
In Umberto Eco's 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, Adso has a dream or vision based on the Coena Cypriani while the monks around him chant the Dies Irae.
In Patrick O'Brians novel, The Letter of Marque (1988): "and some moments later the after part of the ship, usually quiet with a following wind and a moderate sea, was filled with a great deep roaring Dies Irae that went on and on, quite startling the quarterdeck." (Played by the character Dr Maturin on his cello.)
"Dies irae, dies illa when the absent shall be present and the present absent...in albums, in desk drawers, this picture and thousands like it have subtly matured, metamorphosed." Age of Iron (1990) by J. M. Coetzee
In Anne Rice's 1998 novel The Vampire Armand , when Amadeo and other apprentices were captured by the Santino's satanic coven of vampires, they would mock Amadeo/Armand by singing this hymn.
References in popular culture
Film composer
Dimitri Tiomkin uses the
Dies Irae in the scene in
It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey is fleeing to the bridge after seeing Pottersville.
In Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal, the traditional Gregorian Dies Irae is used throughout the film.
In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, the main theme is based on Hector Berlioz' interpretation of the Dies Irae as he used it in his "Symphonie fantastique".
The seventh track of Bathory's 1988 black metal album Blood Fire Death is entitled "Dies Irae".
References
External links
Dies Iræ, Franciscan Archive. Includes two Latin versions and a literal English translation.
Podies Irae – Film Score Monthly podcast highlighting the use of Dies Irae in concert and film music.
Category:Catholic music
Category:Christian hymns
Category:Latin hymns
Category:13th-century medieval Latin literature
Category:Requiems
Category:Catholic liturgy
Category:Latin religious phrases
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