The Best of The 31 Days of Halloween Series: Karl Jenkins Requiem: Dies Irae

Released in 2005, Requiem is an album by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. In this work, Jenkins interjects movements featuring Japanese death poems in the form of a haiku with those traditionally encountered in a Requiem Mass. At times, the Latin text is sung below the text of the haiku.

A far cry from the Verdi Dies Irae that I featured a few days ago, the Jenkins Dies Irae uses a driving, repetitive beat and a choral chant to create an unsettling mood and sinister feel, and combined with the deviant art chosen for this particular presentation, it really sets the listener on edge.