The most beautiful Requiems

Requiem aeternam dona eis... Time and again over the centuries, the texts from religious services honoring the dead have been set to music. Some Requiems—as these musical works are called—were composed after personal experiences with death (Verdi’s Messa da Requiem and Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem). Others were commissioned by mysterious patrons or even government officials (Mozart’s Requiem in D minor and Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts). Still others were composed in happy times (Fauré’s and Dvořák's Requiems). Whatever their origins, these works count among some of classical music’s greatest treasures.