What is Requiem?
A '''Requiem''' (or '''Requiem Mass''') is a [[Eucharist]] service in the [[Roman Catholic]] Church to pray for the repose of the soul of someone who has died. There are special words for a Requiem Mass. They are in [[Latin]]. The best-known part of the Requiem Mass starts with the words “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine” (“Give them eternal rest, O Lord”). This is why it is called a “Requiem”. Many [[composer]]s throughout the centuries have composed [[music]] to these words. The word “Requiem” can mean a piece of music which sets the words of the Requiem Mass. Celebration of the Eucharist to pray for people who have died goes back at least as far as the [[2nd century]]. In the [[Middle Ages]] the words of the Requiem Mass were sung to [[Gregorian chant]]. In the [[Renaissance]] church music was generally [[polyphonic]]. This sort of music, which has several voices weaving in and out of one another, is the kind of music used at the time for requiems. The composer [[Johannes Ockeghem]] is an example of a composer who wrote such music. Polyphonic settings of the Requiem Mass continued during the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]] ([[17th century|17th]] and early [[18th century|18th centuries]]), even though other musical forms (e.g. [[opera]]) had developed a much more modern style. The most famous Requiem from the 18th century is the one by [[Mozart]]. Many musicians think it was one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It was left unfinished when Mozart died. In the [[19th century]] many composers wrote Requiems. Most of these were written for performance at [[concert]]s, not for church services, but they still used the Latin words of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. [[Luigi Cherubini]] wrote a Requiem in C minor for the annual remembering of the [[execution]] of [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]. He wrote another Requiem in D minor, which he wrote for himself. It was performed at his own [[funeral]]. [[Giuseppe Verdi]] wrote a very exciting ''Messa da Requiem'' (1874) which sounds very operatic