This edition was prepared by Wim Looyestijn — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Dies irae
Staff Notation • Sacred, Sequence hymns
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SSATB · Sabine Cassola
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Dies irae by Giuseppe Zamponi — Lyrics
1. Dies irae, dies illa
solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.
2. Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando iudex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus?
3. Tuba mirum spargens sonum,
per sepulchra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
4. Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.
5. Liber scriptus proferetur
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.
6. Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet, apparebit;
nil inultum remanebit.
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About Dies irae
Giuseppe Zamponi composed this SSATB setting of the Latin sequence Dies irae. This ancient text, one of the most famous medieval hymns, meditates on the Last Judgment, the day of wrath. The lyrics evoke the fear and awe of that ultimate accounting, as the dead are raised and judged, with the trumpet's call sounding through the graves. Zamponi's music would have been intended to match the text's dramatic and solemn pronouncements, reflecting the profound theological weight of the sequence. The SSATB voicing allows for rich harmonic possibilities to underscore the gravity of the subject matter, from the initial pronouncements of doom to the pleas for mercy.
