Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem ( Verdi's Requiem also ) is the setting of the text of the requiem mass ( Requiem) by the composer Giuseppe Verdi from the year 1874.
Formation
In the wake of the death of Gioachino Rossini Giuseppe Verdi in 1868 invited his time twelve most important composers of Italy to a joint composition of a Requiem Mass, called the Messa per Rossini. He took over in this requiem a setting of the final movement, the " Libera me ". The premiere was to take place on the first anniversary of the death of Rossini, November 13, 1869 in Bologna. The Messa per Rossini was completed in September 1869, a performance was, however, not materialize because of adverse circumstances. The manuscript came then organized into oblivion.
Once again dealt with the Verdi Requiem fabric after 1873 the poet Alessandro Manzoni died. Verdi had the prestigious Manzoni, identification figure of the Risorgimento - the Italian national movement, whose representatives also Verdi himself was (see Viva Verdi) - deeply revered. He offered the city of Milan, the composition of a fair which was to be performed one year after Manzoni's death. The town accepted with thanks. After Verdi had won in 1871 with the opera Aida a groundbreaking success, which finally helped him also in Germany for the recognition, Verdi composed the Messa da Requiem as his last work for the time being.
Church music had produced Verdi up to this point only during its first years of education, which at that time were back thirty years, and in the aforementioned part of the Messa per Rossini composition. Supposedly he studied during the composition of the Messa da Requiem in Paris, the Requiems of Mozart, Cherubini, Berlioz and other composers.
Verdi's contribution to the Messa per Rossini, the final " Libera me ", now became the nucleus for the entire Requiem. Verdi kept him in a slightly different form in as the final movement and the new composition. The a cappella set "Requiem aeternam " for solo soprano and chorus from the funeral of Rossini used Verdi Requiem in the new orchestral and choral setting of "Requiem aeternam " in the introitus. The setting of the " Dies irae " from the older composition was taken three times for the same or text -like passages of the sequence. Verdi also recovered another original composition, which acted as a dirge for Posa in the French original version of the opera Don Carlos, in the " Lacrimosa ".
Premiere and proliferation
As foreseen, was premiered at the first anniversary of Manzoni, 22 May 1874 held at the San Marco church at Milan. The original title suffix " Per l' della morte di Alessandro Manzoni anniversario XXII Maggio MDCCCLXXIV " (pictured at right ) writes this performance as the actual work of determining fixed. Already in the same year, however, led Verdi to the work in Paris in 1875 and brought it to London and Vienna. The first performances in the German Empire took place in Cologne and Munich in December 1875.
Because of the dedicatee you once called Verdi's Messa da Requiem Manzoni Requiem. The term was especially in the German area in the years after the first performances in the art, however, was no longer in use already in the 20th century. Colloquially, one uses today called Verdi's Requiem, while often the original title is Messa da Requiem used for concert announcements.
Verdi's Messa da Requiem, as Berlioz's Grand Messe des Morts and Brahms ' A German Requiem, Requiem, which was not written for liturgical use, but only for concert performances; therefore it is often slightly ironic as Verdi's best opera called.
Plant construction
The text and the schedule of the work correspond almost throughout the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the dead worship. The differences are marginal: Verdi decided not only to the setting of Gradual and Tract, but added the responsory Libera me. The cast, however, corresponds to an opera orchestra ( with great match to Don Carlos ) with four soloists (soprano, mezzo- soprano, tenor, bass) and choir ( four voices, often multi-divided votes, the Sanctus double choir, ie two four-part choirs ).
Abbreviations: S - soprano, M - mezzo- soprano, T - Tenor, B - Bass
The Duration of the Messa da Requiem is 85 minutes.
Orchestra
3 flutes ( with piccolo ), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 8 trumpets (including 4 remote Trumpets Tuba mirum ), 3 valve tenor trombones, 1 Ophicleide, timpani, percussion and strings
Editorial features
After the first performances of the work underwent a small revision: 1875 decided Verdi, to replace the " Liber scriptus ", which consisted of a Chorfugato until then by a mezzo- soprano aria. Only in the edition of 1874 ( published by Ricordi), the piece is still preserved in its original version.