A requiem is a special kind of Mass performed at a memorial service. Its name comes from the first Latin words “Requiem aeternam” — “Grant them eternal rest, O Lord.” The requiem includes both parts of the ordinary Mass and special ones — notably the fearsome “Dies irae” (“Day of Wrath”) with its picture of the Last Judgment.
The requiem gave composers scope for the deepest reflections on life, death, fear, and hope. Immortal are Mozart's Requiem (written on his deathbed and left unfinished), the grandiose, almost operatic Requiem of Verdi, as well as Brahms's lyrical “German Requiem” and the requiems of Fauré and Duruflé. It is music in which personal grief rises to the universal, eternal question of the meaning of being and the mystery of death.
