GIUSSEPPE VERDI MESSA DA REQUIEM FOR MANZONI

MESSA DA REQUIEM THE MASTER`S GREATEST OPERA HIS ...TEARS FOR THE DEATH OF ALESSANDRO MANZONI Historical review and presentation by yearswithmusic.blogspot.com ©

The announcement of Gioachino Rossini`s death , 1868, made Verdi come with a proposal, that all theImaster musicians of the time, should

Collaborate on the composition of a requiem for the great musician`s death. He already had his piece ready the famous LIBERA ME which concludes his Requiem.

The 13 other musicians who were to participate on the composition were unknown at the time only Verdi was well known.

The performance date had been scheduled and days before, the conductor said he would abandone the project. Mariani was his name and later on he would hold a great friendship with Verdi.

In 1873 the news for the death of Alessandro Manzoni ,a great writer and humanist put all Italy in grief. Verdi and Manzonni were met back in 1868 and the master admired him ..He started immediately the composition of a complete MESSA DA REQUIEM dedicated to the memory of Manzoni. First thing he did was to travel to Paris. Now what exactly did Verdi do there is not known. However listening to the Berlioz Requiem and Verdi`s, one can find no common points. The former being a rather strict hymn closer to the traditional catholic Masses(even though the work is NOT religious music as Berlioz himself has indicated) and the later being an operatic presentation of the Mass but in a form which had never been presented before..

There are a few facts that show a similarity on the two Requiems. TUBA MIRUM .The horns start with the same tempi nearly and climax on the thunderous tympani theme which introduces the chorus Tuba mirum….Berlioz Requiem was composed in 1837 and Verdi`s in 1873.