Music for the Requiem Mass
The Music for the Requiem Mass is any music that accompanies the Requiem, a Mass in the Catholic Church for the deceased. It has inspired a large number of compositions, including settings by Mozart, Berlioz, Donizetti, Verdi, Bruckner, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, Fauré and Duruflé. Originally, such compositions were meant to be performed in liturgical service, with monophonic chant. Eventually the dramatic character of the text began to appeal to composers to an extent that they made the requiem a genre of its own, and the compositions of composers such as Verdi are essentially concert pieces rather than liturgical works.
A portion of the manuscript of Mozart's Requiem, K 626 (1791), showing his heading for the first movement.
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead, is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is usually celebrated in the context of a funeral.
Requiem for Bishop Cirilo Almario, in the Novus Ordo Mass at Minor Basilica and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos, Bulacan, 2016
The Requiem, in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, celebrated annually for Louis XVI and victims of the French Revolution, in the crypt of Strasbourg Cathedral, 2013
Requiem Mass for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at St. Catherine's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, published in a Russian newspaper, 1914
Extraordinary Form Requiem Mass at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims) church in Rome