Description
Language: Latin
Instrumentation: STB, Viola, Organ
Level of difficulty: medium
Duration: 5:00
This piece in D minor, which only contains the final formula of the Catholic Mass for the Dead “Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen” (“Lord grant them eternal rest, and let the eternal light shine upon them. Let them rest in peace. Amen.”) was commissioned by the publisher Giulio Ricordi for the 4th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death (January 27, 1905) and is dated January 14, 1905 by Puccini himself; the premiere took place (13 days later) in the chapel of the Casa di Riposo (Milan retirement home for musicians) as part of a funeral mass. This was a closed event, which – including the thirty or so choristers from La Scala – was probably attended by a maximum of one hundred people. The work was never performed in public again during the composer’s lifetime – probably at his own request – and was never printed. It was not until a month after Puccini’s death, on 29 December 1924, that the Requiem, which lasts around five minutes, was performed again: this time it was played as part of a memorial concert in honor of its creator under the direction of Arturo Toscanini at the city’s conservatory.