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Dies Irae from Requiem/Verdi DIES IRAE from REQUIEM GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901) THE COMPOSER Giuseppe Verdi was born in the tiny village of Le Roncole in Italy on October, 9, 1813. His father and mother Carlo and Luigia ran a small inn and shop where they sold sugar, coffee, tobacco, matches and drinks. Giuseppe was a very obedient and quiet child. Some even say he seemed sad most of the time. The only time he seemed to get excited was when a hand organ player would walk down the street. He would follow it all around town until his legs could walk no more. When Giuseppe was 7, his father bought an old spinet piano for him. Giuseppe practiced every day, became quite good and started taking lessons from the organist at his church. Two years later his teacher died, and at age 10 Giuseppe became the organist at his town’s church. Since there was no school in Le Roncole Giuseppe’s father sent him to live in the larger town of Bussetto, where he stayed with a friend of his. Giuseppe was a great student who studied hard and never skipped school. He continued to play organ for his home church, walking three miles there and back every Sunday. Two years later Giuseppe got a job working at the warehouse where his father bought supplies for his store. Instead of money, he got to live with owner of the warehouse who happened to also be a musician and had rehearsals of the local orchestra at his house. Here Giuseppe got the attention of the conductor, Provesi, who recognized his talent and became his teacher. He decided that Giuseppe was so talented that he needed to go to Milan to study. There he studied with Lavigna, the conductor at the LaScala Opera House. This was the beginning of a great career. 1 Dies Irae from Requiem/Verdi Giuseppe married the daughter of one of his teachers, and soon had two children. Tragedy hit Verdi soon after. In the span of a year, both of his children died. Shortly after that, he produced his first Opera, Oberto, in 1838. It was quite successful. However that was not the end of Verdi’s sorrow. In 1840 his wife, Marguerite, died of typhoid fever, leaving 27 year old Verdi alone. He was scheduled to write a comic opera soon after the deaths in his family. Needless to say, happiness was not something he could find to put into his music and the opera was a total failure. Verdi was so hurt by the reaction to his opera that he swore he would never compose again and went into seclusion. In 1842, the director of the LaScala Opera House begged Verdi to take a look at a new libretto (story) that the composer he hired to write the music for refused do. Verdi didn’t want to consider it, but after he took a glance at the page, he couldn’t put it down. He had it memorized by the next day. It was taken from the Bible story about King Nebuchadnezzar, and the result was an opera called Nebucco. This opera was a huge success. Its 57 performances in the autumn season set a record at LaScala that had not been equaled. After this, the great operas just kept coming. These included Rigolettto, Il trovatore, La traviata, and Aida. In 1959 Verdi got married again, this time to a singer in his operas named Giuseppina Strepponi. He and his wife traveled around the world supervising the productions of his operas. In 1871, after the success of Aida, Verdi announced his retirement. For the next 16 years, he wrote very little including a string quartet and his famous Requiem. After the Requiem he did not compose for 12 years. Then, he had two final operas Othello, in 1886, and Falstaff in 1893. Verdi’s wife died in 1897. He lived in seclusion in Milan until he died of a stroke on January 27, 1901, at the age of 88. He will be remembered as one of the greatest opera composers that ever lived. THE MUSIC When Rossini passed away in 1868, Verdi had an idea to honor him with a special Requiem Mass (a mass for the dead). He suggested that the best Italian composers each write one part. The piece was completed, but because of all of the different compositional styles, Verdi didn’t think it was satisfactory. He decided to write the whole thing himself and perform it at the anniversary of the funeral of Alessandro Manzoni, an author and patriot. 2 Dies Irae from Requiem/Verdi On May 22, 1874, the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death, Verdi’s requiem was performed in Milan. The piece is scored for; four soloists, chorus, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 8 trumpets (4 on stage and 4 off-stage), 4 french horns, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum (laid on it’s side with two players) and strings. There are seven movements in the Requiem. The Dies Irae is the second movement. It is divided into 10 parts. The part we are studying is the first in this movement. The words are written in Latin. This was because that was the language of the Catholic Church at that time, and the Requiem was the Catholic Church’s Mass of the Dead. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia THE LYRICS DIES IRAE (LATIN) Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla teste David cum Sybilla Dies irae, dies illa Quantus tremor est futurus Quando judex est venturus Cuncta stricte discussurus 3 Dies Irae from Requiem/Verdi DAY OF WRATH (ENGLISH) Day of wrath and doom impending Heaven and earth in ashes ending David’s word with Sibyl’s blending Day of wrath and doom impending Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendith When from heaven the judge descendeth On whose sentence all dependeth From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia TEACHING IDEAS ***Have students listen to the piece and jot down 3 things that they hear. Ask them to pass the paper to their neighbor, and see if they can hear the same things plus add 2 more. Play the music again. Continue to trade and listen until there are many ideas on each page. Ask students to share their answers. Put them on the board and see how long of a list you can make. ***Talk about the bass drum and show a picture. Explain that for this piece the bass drum is placed on its side and hit very hard by two players. Ask the class why they think Verdi chose this instrument for this song. Have students count how many times the bass drum plays in the opening part of the song. ***Before telling the students the title or details of the piece, ask them to make up a title for it. Then ask them to write the story they think the piece is telling based on their title. Have students share with the class while the music plays quietly in the background. ***Give students the Latin words and have them follow the lyrics with the recording. Ask the students to sing with the music in Latin. ***Ask students to move with the music. You may want to give them scarves or streamers to use for a follow-up activity. 4 Dies Irae from Requiem/Verdi ***Ask students to describe the music using lines. Discuss how you can show high and low, loud and soft, and fast and slow using visual signs. Have students put their marker on their paper and move it with the music. ***Play the music and ask students to draw a picture of what they think the music is describing. 5