Best Requiem

Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, SWV 279–281, is a profoundly moving German requiem composed during the Baroque period. These three movements showcase intricate polyphonic textures and are notable for their expressive exploration of grief and mourning. Written for professional vocal ensemble...

The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a large-scale liturgical work composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Completed primarily by him, with significant contributions from Franz Xaver Süssmayr after his death, it remains one of the most frequently performed choral pieces in classical music. The piece’s pr...

Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, completed in 1873, is a monumental choral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. The work’s dramatic and intensely emotional style, influenced by operatic traditions, was commissioned to honor Alessandro Manzoni. It remains a significant piece within the...

Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, is a large-scale choral work set to German biblical verses instead of traditional Latin texts. Composed in 1868, it reflects Brahms's grief following the deaths of composer Robert Schumann and his mother. The piece remains notable for its Protestant co...

Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Officium Defunctorum, completed in 1605, is a profoundly moving requiem mass written for the funeral of Empress Maria of Austria. This significant work exemplifies the pinnacle of Spanish Renaissance polyphony showcasing intricate vocal textures and expressive Latin text. It...

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Op. 66 is a monumental choral and orchestral work composed in 1962. It uniquely integrates a traditional Latin requiem mass with selections from Wilfred Owen's anti-war poetry. The piece utilizes a large orchestra and chorus, featuring both English and German vocal pa...

Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48, is a profoundly moving choral work composed between 1887 and 1900. This French liturgical piece, written in Latin, stands out for its restrained beauty and lack of traditional dramatic elements like the *Dies irae*. It offers solace through intimate melodies and har...

Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, Op. 9 is a Latin sacred work completed in 1947 and based closely on Gregorian melodies from the Mass for the Dead. Duruflé integrates plainchant with refined twentieth-century French harmony, flexible rhythms, and restrained orchestral or organ colors. Written for soloists...

Hector Berlioz's Grande Messe des morts, Op. 5, is a Latin requiem composed in 1837 for large chorus, orchestra, and tenor soloist. Its instrumentation includes four antiphonal brass ensembles positioned apart from the main orchestra, used prominently in the Tuba mirum. The work combines monumental...

György Ligeti's Requiem is an avant-garde choral and orchestral work composed between 1963 and 1965. Setting portions of the Latin Requiem Mass, it is written for soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, mixed choir, and orchestra, and is distinguished by dense chromatic clusters and micropolyphony rathe...

The Polish Requiem is a large-scale choral and orchestral composition by the modernist Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, which he began composing in 1980 and continued to expand over the following decades. The composition utilizes the traditional text of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, but indi...

Requiem Canticles is a choral-orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky, composed in 1966 and premiered that year in Princeton, New Jersey. Written during his late serialist period, it sets selected movements from the Latin Requiem Mass in a highly condensed form. The work is one of Stravinsky's last major...

Antonín Dvořák's Requiem, Op. 89, composed in 1890, is a large-scale setting of the Latin Requiem Mass for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The work was premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in 1891, conducted by the composer. It is among the most significant Czech choral works of the...

Alfred Schnittke composed his Requiem in 1975, a sacred choral work setting the Latin Mass for the Dead for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. It originally served as the second movement of his polystylistic Symphony No. 2, subtitled 'St. Florian,' which reimagined the traditional mass structure withi...

The Missa pro Defunctis (Requiem) by Franco-Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410-1497) is considered the earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem mass. Composed in the mid-15th century, only the Introit and Kyrie sections of the work have survived to the present day. This composit...

The Missa pro Defunctis is a polyphonic choral setting of the Catholic Requiem Mass composed by the Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The work exemplifies the smooth, flowing contrapuntal style that Palestrina developed during his career in Rome. It is structured for mul...

Requiem for Larissa is a large-scale memorial work by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, written between 1997 and 1999 following the death of his wife, musicologist Larissa Bondarenko. Scored for soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, it combines Latin liturgical text with other textual and mus...

Herbert Howells's Requiem is an unaccompanied choral work for divided mixed voices, composed in the 1930s but not published until 1980. Rather than setting the complete Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, it combines passages from the Latin liturgy with English biblical texts, including psalm verses and wo...

Luigi Cherubini's Requiem No. 1 in C minor is a setting of the Latin Mass for the Dead composed in 1816 for a commemoration of King Louis XVI, who had been executed during the French Revolution. Written for mixed chorus and orchestra without vocal soloists, it emphasizes collective choral expression...

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a 1946 choral piece by German-American composer Paul Hindemith. The work is a secular requiem setting the complete text of Walt Whitman's elegy mourning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Hindemith composed the piece shortly after the end of...

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Requiem in F minor is a choral and orchestral mass composed by the prominent Bohemian-Austrian Baroque musician. Serving as Kapellmeister at the Salzburg Cathedral, Biber wrote the piece in the late 17th century to accommodate the musical resources of the archbishopric's...

Polyphonic Missa pro Defunctis by Franco-Flemish composer Pierre de la Rue (c.1452–1518), a leading musician in the Habsburg-Burgundian court chapel and a major contemporary of Josquin des Prez.

Polyphonic requiem by Franco-Flemish composer Orlandus Lassus (c.1532–1594), Kapellmeister at the Munich Hofkapelle and one of the most prolific and widely celebrated Renaissance masters.

Cherubini's second Requiem (1836), written for male voices after objections arose to women singing at memorial services, was studied and admired by Brahms as a compositional model.

Polyphonic requiem by Spanish Renaissance composer Cristóbal de Morales (c.1500–1553), one of the first internationally prominent Spanish sacred composers, who served in the Papal Chapel in Rome.

Requiem ZWV 48 by Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745), the last of four requiem settings by the Bohemian Baroque composer who served at the Dresden court and was admired by J. S. Bach.

Bruckner's Requiem in D minor (WAB 39), composed in 1849 at age 25, is one of his earliest significant sacred works and shows the influence of his mentor Johann Michael Haydn.

Missa pro Defunctis by Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599), longtime maestro de capilla at Seville Cathedral and a leading figure in Iberian sacred polyphony.

Renaissance polyphonic requiem by French composer Antoine Brumel (c.1460–c.1515), a Josquin contemporary who held posts at Notre-Dame de Paris and the Este court in Ferrara.