Verdi - Requiem conducted by Georg Solti, Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Intro

I tried. I’ve listened to this several times now, but every time I listen, I keep hoping that I’ve reached the final track. That’s not a good sign.

Have you ever been in a toxic relationship? You keep hoping this fight is the last fight and one of the following will finally happen:

The relationship will finally end (you don’t have the courage to end it)
You’ll somehow finally miraculously heal each other through catharsis (you won’t)
One of you will just fucking die (apt outcome considering the subject of Verdi’s Requiem).

My relationship to this work is pretty similar.

Background & context

Verdi was a popular composer in the 1800s. He achieved fame, renown, and wealth in his lifetime. “Requiem” was first performed in the Church of San Marco in Milan in 1874. It’s considered part religious music, part opera.

Adoration

Verdi’s Requiem was written to pay homage to a famous Italian author of the time named Alessandro Manzoni. Manzoni wrote a book called, “The Betrothed”. The final version of that book was published in 1840. “The Betrothed” is ostensibly about two lovers in 17th century Italy, but is covertly about Italy freeing itself from Austrian bondage.

Verdi was in love with this book. I can’t imagine any higher praise being said of anything ever:
“I was 16 years old when I read it for the first time… still my enthusiasm for the book remains undiminished; indeed with increasing knowledge of mankind my enthusiasm has grown. And that because the book is true; as true as truth itself. Oh, if only artists could understand this truth! Then we would have neither musicians of the future nor musicians of the past; neither veristic, realistic nor idealistic painters; neither classical nor romantic poets, but only true poets, true painters, true musicians.”

You might read that and assume that this adoration of Manzoni was enough impetus to write a masterpiece. While I didn’t enjoy listening to this piece, it is heralded as a masterpiece by many people who know a lot more about classical music than I do.

Justice

There’s more behind Verdi’s motivations. In addition to having written “The Betrothed”, Manzoni wrote some things that were critical of the Catholic church. Over his life, Manzoni equivocated in his beliefs. In today’s terminology, you might say he spent much of his life as questioning or agnostic. In his old age, it sounds like he came back into the Roman Catholic faith, but like a true gangster, the church never forgot.

When Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi deeply mourned his death. But what really seems to have inspired the Requiem is that Manzoni’s legacy was getting shafted. The church and the media were not honoring Manzoni sufficiently. According to Verdi:
“Now all is over! With him ends the purest, the holiest, the greatest of our glories. I have read many papers. No one speaks fittingly of him. Many words – none deeply felt. There is no lack of gibes. Even at him! What a wretched race we are.”

And this is why Verdi wrote “Requiem” - to ensure his idol was properly respected in the afterlife. And there’s something beautifully poignant, and ironic, about this act because Verdi himself was not particularly religious, in fact he too was likely ‘agnostic.’

The lyrics of Requiem are deeply religious (Roman Catholic style) throughout. This is the traditional treatment of any Requiem. But listening to it and reading some of the translation while knowing that neither the composer, nor the inspiration for the piece were themselves devout believers, adds a layer of appreciation. Verdi, a doubter, usurped the form to celebrate another doubter, in a church. A light-duty fuck you to the Roman Catholic Church.

Ideals

And by the way, what’s with Verdi’s belief in truth? He essentially posits that there is an artistic truth that transcends genre, form, or style.

Verdi’s idealism of ‘artistic truth’ reminded me of Nietzsche’s ideal of the “Ubermensch” and a recurring philosophical ideal commonly referred to as “the end of history.”

I’m not going to bother getting into depth here, because I would no doubt betray my sophomoric amateurism. But, if I dig it, then maybe you dig it.

The music

So, basically I just got ear-fucked in Latin for an hour and a half. And on top of that, each syllable is so stretched out into multiple notes that I couldn’t even follow the lyric sheet. The lyrics themselves are liturgical.

Also, it’s a two disc album. And they did this annoying thing. I’ve seen it done at least one other time. It’s a terrible, stupid idea. They printed the album so that the first disc is Side 1 and Side 4. The second disc is side 2 and side 3. This requires the listener to change discs twice and I didn’t notice it for a while during the first listen, so I had to go back and listen again. What the hell are these people thinking?

There are some beautiful moments. The most famous section is the Dies Irae. There have been many Dies Iraes composed over history and it originated as a Gregorian chant. It’s everywhere. I’ve got a link to a great video about the origin of the melody and how pervasive it has become in popular culture and film at the end of this essay.

Verdi’s Dies Irae is awesomely dramatic. It’s beyond sadness. It’s terrifying. And there is a kicking trumpet lead, which matches the lyric, translated from the Latin:
“The trumpet, sending its wondrous sound
through the tombs in every land,
shall bring all before the throne.”
Then there are these massive timpani drum strikes, that add an element of distinct bad-assery.

But so much of the piece was a chore for my modern ears to get through.

My fear of death

I’ve talked to quite a few people about this and can find no other folks among me that have a fear of death. I don’t understand it and am envious of them.

My fear is definitely grounded in a fear of loss and a fear of the unknown. It’s also a fear of eternity, infinity, and of the reason for existence.

Let me break it down like this. When I was young, I was always thinking about my loved ones, and myself, getting old and dying. Many mornings, getting ready for school, I would make my breakfast with tears welling up in my eyes, picturing my loved ones succumbing to death. I do not know why I was such a morose child, but I don’t remember a time without these thoughts.

I lost any belief in God by the time I was in High School. And it was a long, slow decline. I was not brought up with much belief drilled into me, but I had my own personal relationship with “God” through nightly prayer when I was very young.

So then what am I left with? How do I cope with death and the opaque uncertainty of life? I learned to repose my beliefs in naturalism:
We are the stuff of the universe, and in fact, our cells are constantly renewing, we are really just a component of the flow of matter. It’s not just that when we die, our bodies become a blade of grass. As we live we are just a piece of the earth which is itself a piece of the universe.

There’s no soul in this belief system. No immutable part of ‘my’ being. Not much of an “I” to speak of really. I liked to think that there’s nothing supernatural, no hocus pocus in this way of thinking. Just a matter-of-fact approach to existence and a solution to the vulnerability of impermanence. At least there’s no anthropomorphic deity, no savior, and no relativistic morality.

But then there’s this. The universe had a start, so why wouldn’t it have an end? The universe itself will die and then what consolation is there? There are a few theories about how this will happen, some of the options are fantastic and violent, like the “big crunch” in which the universe collapses under its own weight, condensing once again into a point of near-infinite mass, perhaps to ignite another big bang.

But one of the theories truly terrifies me, and it’s a likely outcome based on current calculations and observations: “heat death.”

The idea here is that the universe continues expanding indefinitely. Entropy wins as galaxies get further and further away from each other, burn out and then die. The universe becomes a cold, formless place – eternally – and there is no. way. out.

So, I’m left with this fear - fear of my own death and the death of the universe. It truly keeps me awake some nights. I wish I could derive some other meaning. Some inspirational, “well then life is just what you make it,” or, “all we have then is the here and now, so let’s make the most of it”, or even fall back into any kind of religious belief system that might soothe me. I have yet to find solace.

Requiem closes with “Libera Me” - a song for the absolution of the dead:

“Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved,
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved.

That day, day of wrath, calamity and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.”

I’m with them on the “death eternal” notion. I wish that I could believe in the rest.

One star:
*

Additional resources:

Why this creepy melody is in so many movies

Good words to learn or remember. I pulled these, with some of my own variations, from a copy of the Oxford Dictionary, because, fuck the internet.

requiem: mass for the repose of the souls of the dead
repose has several meanings, here are two:
1. Lie, be laying or laid, esp. in sleep or death
2. Place (trust, etc.) As in, “I cannot repose comfort in any belief system that soothes my fear of death.” - Stephen Rowley, right now.
  1. See also Psalm 16:1, “For in thee Lord, have I reposed my trust”
Kyrie: a short repeated invocation used in the Roman Catholic and Greek orthodox churches or a musical setting of the Kyrie.
Dies Irae: literally, “Day of Wrath” – a latin hymn sung in a mass for the dead, based on a poem by Thomas of Celano:
1. “Day of wrath, day of mourning, earth in smouldering ashes laying so spake David and the Sybil.”
sybil: any of certain women in ancient times supposed to utter the oracles and prophecies of a god