Photography by
Kemper Studios
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Guiseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem (1874)
Scored for three flutes and piccolo, pairs of oboes and clarinets, four bassoons, four horns, eight trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings, chorus and soloists SATB
November 13, 1869 was to be a great day in music history. Twelve of Italy’s best composer’s were collaborating on a requiem mass to be performed in honor of Giocchino Rossini, who had died in 1868. Each composer was to write a single movement of the mass, and it was to be performed in San Petronio where Rossini had grown up. Expectations were high, and Guiseppe Verdi, who had brought about this marvelous musical event, must have felt proud and humbled at the same time to be able to honor one of Italy’s most beloved citizens. But then it started to come apart at the seams.
The closer the performance date came, the more it went wrong. The city council in Bologna, who assured Verdi and the public that they were in support of the idea, secretly considered the whole event as a backward tribute to past glories, and sincerely hoped that it would collapse under its own weight. The impresario of the Bologna Opera, whose singers and orchestra would form the backbone of the project bowed out when he realized that he would not be fully compensated for their services. There was frequent bickering and occasional backbiting and when Verdi accused Mariani, the project’s conductor, of trying to sabotage the work, that was the last straw. The city council got their wish. The Rossini mass was never performed in Verdi’s lifetime. However, another tragic loss would provide the spark that gave birth to one of Verdi’s most celebrated compositions.
In May of 1873 the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni passed away at the age of 89. Manzoni’s novel I promessi sposi had a profound impact on Verdi when he had first read it as a young man, and the chance to meet and talk with the master in 1868 was one of Verdi’s most treasured memories. He wrote, “I would have knelt before him, if men worshipped men.” Verdi was so overcome that he wrote to his publisher Ricordi, “With him ends the purest, holiest title to our fame. I shall not go to Milan; I could not bear to be present at the funeral. I shall come later to find the grave, alone and unseen.” Verdi paid his respects in June, and it was here that, overcome with emotion, Verdi vowed to honor Manzoni in the same way he was unable to honor Rossini. This time there would be no mistakes. Not only would Verdi write the entire requiem mass himself, but he would also hand pick the singers and the venue, and would conduct the work.
Verdi immediately wrote to the mayor of Milan about his sincere wishes: “it is a heartfelt impulse, or rather a crying need, to do all in my power to honor this great spirit whom I valued so highly as a writer and honored so sincerely as a man – the true pattern of patriotic virtue.” With the mayor’s consent, Verdi set to work on the new Requiem, and it was performed on the anniversary of Manzoni’s death, May 22, 1874. The Libera me which concluded the mass, was actually Verdi’s contribution to the Rossini project five years before, and now served as vindication for the tribute so carelessly denied him.
The devout people of Verdi's day were in something of a state when they realized that this stalwart agnostic was writing a mass, but the work's first audiences left no doubt as to its fate: they deemed it a masterpiece. Johannes Brahms put it best when he said, "only a genius could write such a work."
I. REQUIEM AETERNAM and KYRIE ELEISON
The work starts with a quiet, solemn utterance in the cellos. This theme is now taken up sympathetically by the rest of the strings. The choir enters in a hushed whisper the first words of the Requiem Eternam. In the joyful middle section, the choir sings, voice following voice, the words of the psalm Te decet hymus. The opening theme returns and quietly leads into the Kyrie, sung in counterpoint by the four soloists and chorus.
II. DIES IRAE
In the powerful second movement, Verdi arrests our attention with four shattering chords in the orchestra. The brass dominates as trumpets echo in the distance. This Day of Judgment is filled with highly charged emotion, giving way at times to deep tenderness and closes with a plea for peace.
III. DOMINE JESU CHRISTE
The Domine Jesu, is set as a five-part symmetrical movement for the four soloists, the tempi changing with each section. The graceful melodies are given compassionate support by the orchestra.
IV. SANCTUS and BENEDICTUS
The joyfully passionate Sanctus is set as a double chorus preceded by trumpet fanfares. The expressive Benedictus that follows changes to the minor key. Throughout the orchestra accompanies in a kind of perpetual motion.
V. AGNUS DEI
The Agnus Dei begins in unaccompanied octaves by the soprano and mezzo soprano soloists. The choir repeats the sentiment, this time with a few instruments. Flute and clarinet lead the chorus in counterpoint, but soon the soloists add their voices as the accompaniment grows more complex.
VI. LUX AETERNA
The Lux Aeterna is a movement of great beauty and serenity. Verdi sets the moving text for mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone with the strings in perfect accord.
VII. LIBERA ME
Both the Requiem aeternam and the Dies irae return in the finale, creating a unifying structure, and reiterating both the hopes and the fears that echoed in the first two movements. In the midst of the Dies irae, the soprano soloist sings alone for the first time in the work, first in recitative, echoed by the choir, then in aria-like song. The choir begins to take on a dominant role, but soon the soprano soars above them. The finale, Libera me is a fugue taking as its subject the inverted theme of the Sanctus, and this mighty utterance ends in quietude.
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