Perhaps One of the Most Widely Used, Most Recognizable Plainsong Or Chant Melodies From

Dies Irae

Perhaps one of the most widely used, most recognizable plainsong or chant melodies from antiquity is the one employed in the Dies Irae, or the Mass of the dead. It is thought to have been composed by one Thomas of Celano in approximately 1250 it is a hymn about the final days and Last Judgment on earth. The plainsong melody is in the Dorian mode.

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“One of the oldest and most frequently borrowed of all melodies is the ecclesiastical plainsong to the sequence “Dies Irae.” The theme, one of great somber beauty, has exercised its attraction partly, at least, by virtue of its intrinsic merit, but its use must often have been suggested by its liturgical associations.” (Robin. 1953. 133.)

So popular is this enchanting little melody that composers since the early days of polyphony right up to notables of the 20th century such as Stravinsky and Vaughn Williams have seen fit to use it as a compositional element in their work. I think it a testament of sorts to the strength of the melody itself that it is able to endure so many different applications employing so many different stylistic treatments.

“Since the time when the melody of “Dies Irae” became, as it were, common property, composers have used it in two ways; first as an integral part of their settings of the Requim Mass in its proper context; secondly, and here often in a debased form, to help create the appropriate atmosphere in works dealing with :the supernatural, with wicked powers, with witches, madness, bad dreams, and the lower elements of darkness”, the type of subject which came into favour as the Romantic movement got under way.” (Robin. 1953. 134.)

One of the most effective uses for me has to be in the Symphony Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. He uses the Dies Irae to depict the in the “dream of the witches Sabbath” an almost surreal tapestry of sound to depict the inane world of ghosts and goblins that inhabit this dream. Through repetition in various instrumentations and tempos, he uses it to great effect. The overall effect can best be described as wild and when I first this work as a young music student it was for me then like nothing I had ever heard before. We find it again being used to illustrate musically a similar scenario in Liszt’s Dante Symphony. Dies Irae is heard in the first movement. When this piece was heard by the great Russian composer Mussorgsky he wrote;

“That mystical music picture, the “Danse Macabre”, in the form of variations on the theme Dies Irae could only have come from the brain of a daring European like Liszt—in it he has shown the true artistic relations between the orchestra and the piano.” (Robin. 1953. 136.)

What an interesting concept, using ancient modal plainsong to create something modern and fresh said the author of this paper tongue planted firmly in cheek.