Mozart's Requiem in popular culture
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The Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in 1791. It was Mozart's last composition. For information about the Requiem, see Requiem (Mozart).
The Requiem is familiar to many listeners and as a result has been incorporated into many works of popular culture. Often, the music (particularly the Dies Irae portion) is used to signal a dark, tragic, or frightening event. The material below is a list of examples of such uses.
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[edit] Films
- Mozart's Requiem has been used in two Coen Brothers films: The Big Lebowski, when the Big Lebowski tells the Dude of Bunny's disappearance, and Intolerable Cruelty, when Miles Massey is called into the office of his boss, Herb Myerson. The scenes are similar, in that they both feature disabled authority figures in darkened rooms, which are used to intimidate the protagonist.
- The Requiem appears in the film SLC Punk!
- The Introit portion is played in the final scene of Elizabeth in which the titular monarch, portrayed by Cate Blanchett, devotes herself to England and becomes the 'Virgin Queen'.[1]
- The Rex Tremendae portion is featured in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, in the scene where Tom Cruise walks into the cafe holding a newspaper headlining: "Lucky to be Alive".[1]
- The Lacrimosa from the Requiem is featured during the Richard Gere and Edward Norton film Primal Fear, in the scene when the Archbishop of Chicago is brutally slain.
- The Dies Irae portion of the Requiem is played in the opening of film X2: X-Men United, during the attempted assassination of the President of the United States.
- The Lacrimosa was also used in the Guy Ritchie film Revolver, when leading actor Jason Statham falls down the stairs in slow motion.
- The Lacrimosa portion of the Requiem is played in Highlander II: The Quickening when MacLeod's wife passes away.
- Various movements of the Requiem are used throughout the film Amadeus.[1]
- In Romeo + Juliet Mozart's Requiem is used during the death of Tybalt.
[edit] Television
- The Requiem is played on The Simpsons episode portraying the story of Mozart.
- The opening portion Requiem Aeternam is heard in the third season finale of TV series Smallville, when Lionel Luthor attempts to get his son Lex and the Sullivan family assassinated from his prison cell.
- Can be heard in the first episode (Killeroo) of the cult BBC comedy series, The Mighty Boosh.
- Various scenes from the second series of 'Nighty Night', particularly the very final scene in Episode 6, which features the Lacrimosa.
[edit] Games
- The Dies Irae has also been used as one of the main themes in the Playstation 2 game Onimusha 3: Demon Siege as the Genma attack Paris. A rendition of it is also used as Gildenstern's theme music.
- The Dies Irae is used in the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters games as Wolfgang Krauser's theme song. In the original Neo-Geo versions, the music lacked lyrics, but most CD and DVD based home versions (e.g. PlayStation/Sega Saturn, etc.) included the lyrics.
- The Lacrimosa is used in the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory release trailer, even though it hasn't been used in the game.
- The Dies Irae is played during the introduction video to the Xbox/PC game Still Life.
[edit] Albums
- The rock/rap/pop group, Sweetbox, used and sampled Lacrimosa in their song "Lacrimosa", which is featured on their album Adagio, where singer/songwriter of Sweetbox: Jade Villalon, and guest rapper, RJ, performed the vocals. It is one of the first pop songs to feature this piece.
- The album also included a song titled Liberty which used a sampling of Kyrie.
- Melodic Death Metal band Children of Bodom use the beginning bars of 'Confutatis' in their song "Red Light In My Eyes Pt.2".
- The Dies Irae portion of the Requiem is played in "Coming 2 America" from the Word of Mouf album released in 2001 by rap artist Ludacris.
- Moonspell samples the Requiem in the song "Tired", on their album The Butterfly Effect.
- The Confutatis Maledictis theme is used in Trans Siberian Orchestra's rock opera Beethoven's Last Night, in both the Overture and in "Requiem (The Fifth)".
- The Burbank Chorale released a Mozart Requiem CD in 2006, recorded during their second performance of the Requiem at their Spring 2006 concert. listen to: [1]
[edit] Lacrimosa
The Lacrimosa (at Mozart's lifetime philologically incorrect written Lacrymosa) is a section of the Dies Irae sequence; the Requiem composers often create a separate movement in the Requiem mass for it (Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz being among the most famous.)
- Rock band Evanescence's 2006 release, "The Open Door", contains a track titled "Lacrymosa" which is based upon the violin motif in Mozart's composition.
- Previous to the above, an Evanescence demo song called "Anything For You" also features the central choir part of the Lacrimosa.
- A sequence featuring the Dewitt-Clinton High School Chorus performing the "Lacrimosa" was cut from the film, Finding Forrester (2000).
- A portion of the song is playing in the background of a scene in The Big Lebowski where The Dude meets with Mr. Lebowski after Bunny is kidnapped.
- A variation of this piece is also featured in the Sci-fi series Farscape episode "Into the Lion's Den, Part 2: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"
- This piece is also featured in the BBC series Spooks season 3 episode 5, "Love and Death".
- In the anime adaptation of Fate/stay night, part of the soundtrack includes the Lacrimosa. The song is listed as track 10 on the soundtrack; the song is called "Eirei Chinkon", which translates from Japanese as "Requiem for Fallen Warriors".
- The Lacrimosa is featured in the commercial for the Air Jordan XX2 basketball shoes, which portrayed the famous Michael Jordan dunk in a high school basketball game.[2]
- Paul, the narrative character in Peter Goldsworthy's novel Maestro notes Lacrimosa as "Music to Die By"
- The Lacrimosa sequence is used in the hour-long last episode of the Broken Saints series, credit is given.
[edit] Other
- The beginning of the Dies Irae portion is heard in a short film/subplot of the Pixar movie The Incredibles, when Jack-Jack terrorizes the babysitter by displaying one of his many newfound superpowers (namely, self-combustion).
