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| Dies Irae |
Prospero and Roger Bacon are noted as being able to sing this piece of music "all the way through to the end" [The Face in the Frost, vii].
The Dies Irae, whose title translates to "the day of wrath,' is the name of a fifty-seven line Latin poem by Thomas Celano used as part of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass or "Mass of the Dead."
It is interesting to note that The Face in the Frost comes only a few short years after Bellairs's stint of teaching at Shimer College. During Bellairs' year on campus there was a rather volatile riff between the administration and faculty leading to a number of protests and eventual resignations, including Bellairs. John himself got in on the fun, protesting the split by taking part in a funeral march for Shimer College:
Two nights ago I, dressed in a black cape belonging to an Episcopal priest here, led a funeral procession to the President's door. There were about 60 of us (which is good at a college of 450, most of whom are up on pot or don't give a shit what is happening), and behind me were pallbearers with a huge coffin and a choir I was leading in the Dies Irae and Requiem aeternam.
February, 1967
While John probably knew much about the Dies Irae from his long association with the Catholic church, it is interesting to note he had a chance to use the text, possibly "all the way through to the end" recently in his life.
Myers notes the "ominous, treading melody that accompanies that chant has become something of a cliché in classical music circles, used by many composers. Perhaps the first to make secular use of it was Hector Berlioz in the last movement of the Symphony Fantastique. Rachmaninoff almost made a career in quoting it in various works of his."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae |
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