A German Requiem (Brahms) A German Requiem (Brahms) A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 () by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest composition. "A German Requiem" is sacred but non-liturgical, and unlike a long tradition of the Latin "Requiem", "A German Requiem", as its title states, is a "Requiem" in the German language. Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well
Music for the Requiem Mass aeternam" (two different settings), and "I heard a voice from heaven." Some composers have written purely instrumental works bearing the title of "requiem", as famously exemplified by Britten's "Sinfonia da Requiem". Hans Werner Henze's "Das Floß der Medusa", written in 1968 as a requiem for Che Guevara, is properly speaking an oratorio; Henze's Requiem is instrumental but retains the traditional Latin titles for the movements. Igor Stravinsky's "Requiem canticles" mixes instrumental movements with segments of the "Introit," "Dies irae," "Pie Jesu," and "Libera me." American composer Dan Forrest has written "Requiem for the Living", a five-movement piece that follows the