A German Requiem (Brahms) the traditional Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, which employs a standardized text in Latin, the text is derived from the German Luther Bible. Brahms's first known use of the title "Ein deutsches Requiem" was in an 1865 letter to Clara Schumann in which he wrote that he intended the piece to be ""eine Art deutsches Requiem"" (a sort of German Requiem). Brahms was quite moved when he found out years later that Robert Schumann had planned a work of the same name. "German" refers primarily to the language rather than the intended audience. Brahms told Carl Martin Reinthaler, director of music
Music for the Requiem Mass </poem> <poem> </poem> For many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung to Gregorian melodies. The Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem, written sometime in the later half of the 15th century, is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting. There was a setting by the elder composer Dufay, possibly earlier, which is now lost: Ockeghem's may have been modelled on it. Many early compositions employ different texts that were in use in different liturgies around Europe before the Council of Trent set down the texts given above. The requiem of Brumel, circa 1500, is the first to include the "Dies Iræ". In