The Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") and Totentanz ("Dance of Death"): Medieval Themes Revisited in 19th Century Music and Culture

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal Volume 4 Article 5 Fall 2003 The Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") and Totentanz ("Dance of Death"): Medieval Themes Revisited in 19th Century Music and Culture Erin Brooks University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/inquiry Part of the Other Music Commons Recommended Citation Brooks, Erin (2003) "The Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") and Totentanz ("Dance of Death"): Medieval Themes Revisited in 19th Century Music and Culture," Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 4 , Article 5. Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/inquiry/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact , . Brooks: The Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") and Totentanz ("Dance of Death"): 10 INQUIRY Volume 4 2003 THE DIES IRAE ("DAY OF WRATH") AND THE TOTENTANZ ("DANCE OF DEATH"): MEDIEVAL THEMES REVISITED IN 19™ CENTURY MUSIC AND CULTURE By Erin Brooks Department of Music Faculty Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Markham , ,, . Department of Music Abstract: During the pivotal November 2002 football game of Arkansas vs. Georgia in the SEC conference championship, the Georgia marching band struck up their defensive ~allying song. Instead ofa typical "defense" song, the band played an excerpt ofthe Gregorian Sequence Dies Irae ("Day ofWrath '')from the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. Drastically dissociatedfrom its original medieval milieu, this musical Sequence stil{ manages to elicit the same effect offear and foreboding neaTly thousand. years later. Precisely because of its deep musical and cultural roots, the Dies Irae occupies a significant place in history, closely intertwined from early on with the medieval folk motif Totentanz ("Dance ofDeath"), widely depicted in medieval art, and dramatically revived in J9'h century music, art, and literature. a This multi-disciplinary study focuses on the history of art and musicofthese two medieval themes during their development, and then moves on to study them in J9'h century culture. Specifically, the manipulation of the original Gregorian chant and the incorporation of the idea of a medieval dance are analyzed in the music of Hector Berlioz,,Franz Liszt, and Camille Saint-Saens. Numerous other contextual links are explored as well, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Victor Hugo, Henri Cazalis, William Blake, and Alfred R'ethel: all of whom created J9'h century artistic or literary"m/isterpieces derivedfrom the thematic seeds ofthe Dies /rae and the Totentanz. Although neither of these ideas endured in their original form during the Romantic era, the inherently compelling nature of these themes that center on the macabre but inevitable end oflife captivated the Romantic geniuses and continue to intrigue us to this day. Editor's note: Space precluded publication of the entire thesis in this journal. However the work in its entirety can be found on the Inquiry website. Published by ScholarWorks@UARK, 2003 Picture: Reinhold Hammerstein. Tanz und Musik des Todes: die Mittelalterlichen '!ot~ntanze und ihr Nachleben. Bern: Francke Verlag, 1980. Plate 179. Bemhausmusik." Chronologically, this study divides into two main areas of focus; the genesis and permutations of the Requiem Sequence, Dies /rae, and the "morality dance-with-verses", the Totentanz, and the revitalization and metamorphosis of these themes in the Romantic era. Certainly neither the Dies /rae nor the Totentanz completely ceased to exist in the time between the Middle Ages .and the ,19th century. Various alterations in the original ideas 1 Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol. 4 [2003], Art. 5 MUSIC HISTORY: Erin Brooks. The Dies Irae a11d Totentanz associated with both musical Sequence and the folk motif continually occurred during this lengthy time period. Each generation found its own personal method of dealing with the eternal questions of death and its consequences. Yet the fascination with both the Dies /rae and the Totentanz as products of the medieval mindset has endured for almost a thousand years. In November 2002, the Arkansas Razorback football team played the Georgia Bulldogs in the Southeastern Conference championship game. At every key defensive point in the game, the Georgia band struck up their rallying song. A typical choice for this kind of "mood" music at a football game is the "Jaws" theme or the "Darth Vader'' music- but instead the Georgia band played an excerpted version of the initial section of the Gregorian Sequence Dies /rae ("Day of Wrath") from the Mass for the Dead. Few recognized its original source, but the intent of the music was still clear to all those who heard it. Even today, in 2003, a marching band can play an excerpt from the Dies /rae and generate the same feelings of trepidation and premonition of evil. Twentieth-century composers following the first World War similarly found the Totentanz ("Dance of Death") an effective metaphor for the horror they felt concerning the Nazi regime. Obviously these ancient artistic concepts still hold sway over us today, as an enduring legacy of the human mind's attempts to answer eternal questions. The Dies /rae is definitely no ordinary sacred tune; it carries a rich history of cultural implications, such as the Totentanz, and even achieved an individual importance in music and art throughout the ages. Initially, the first section of this thesis offers a brief introduction into the history and specific format of the Roman Catholic Mass, and particularly its variant, the Requiem Mass. While the Mass itself took several centuries to coalesce into its precise form, once it achieved this form it became an extremely important cultural institution in Europe. The immense centralized power of the Catholic Church during the medieval era made the Latin Mass an important unifying device across ethnic and linguistic boundaries. The Requiem Mass, ("Mass for the Dead"), was also codified so as to offer the "definitive" Catholic medieval ideology concerning death. As such, the Requiem Mass contained several special components; the Dies /rae was one of these, formally added to the Mass in 1570. This medieval text penned by Thomas of Celano during the late 11th or early 12'h century, offers a graphic depiction of the horrors of Judgment Day for sinners. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states that, "The Preface for the Deadbemphasized the joyful aspects of the Resurrection. The medieval Sequence, however, stresses fear of judgment and condemnation."' The second chapter of this thesis indeed concerns the background and evolution of the medieval poem, Dies /rae, and also in particular examines the unique Gregorian chant music a (...truncated)