Gregory the Great d. It is a medieval Latin poem characterized by its accentual stress and rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic. The poem describes the Last Judgment , the trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God , where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames. An English version is found in various Anglican Communion service books. The first melody set to these words, a Gregorian chant , is one of the most quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many composers.
The final couplet, Pie Jesu , has been often reused as an independent song. The " Dies irae " has been used in the Roman Rite liturgy as the sequence for the Requiem Mass for centuries, as made evident by the important place it holds in musical settings such as those by Mozart and Verdi.
It appears in the Roman Missal of , the last edition before the implementation of the revisions that occurred after the Second Vatican Council.
As such, it is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated. It also formed part of the pre-conciliar liturgy of All Souls' Day. In the reforms to the Catholic Church 's Latin liturgical rites ordered by the Second Vatican Council, the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy", the Vatican body charged with drafting and implementing the reforms β70 , eliminated the sequence as such from funerals and other Masses for the Dead.
A leading figure in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini , explained the rationale of the Consilium:.
