By "in print" I mean "written down." I'm trying to find the early notation, but there isn't a facsimile in my local library.

http://inquiry.uark.edu/issues/v04/2003a04.pdf

The above is informative - especially the reference to an exhaustive dissertation by Kees Vellekoop (a Dutch musicologist at the Univ. of Utrecht) dating from 1978 on the Dies irae its author and composer and where the oldest manuscripts of the melody can be sourced. He is regarded as the foremost expert on this sequence. Vellekoop died in a traffic accident in 2002 at the age of 62. The dissertation itself is in German:

Vellekoop, Kees. Dies Irae, Dies Illa: Studien zur Frügeschichte einer Sequenz.
Bilthoven: A.B. Creyhgton, 1978.

Contrary to popular belief, the Dies Irae was rarely sung before the 15th century...
I believe the council of trent and its aftermath first standardized it as a required proper of the Mass of the Dead. Before 16th c. some areas still had no sequence at all for funerals in fact.

(THIS IS WHY: The earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem does not include a Dies Irae, after this the first polyphonic settings to include the Dies Irae are by Engarandus Juvenis (c.1490) and Antoine Brumel (1516) to be followed by many composers of the renaissance. )

Instead the sequence "De profundis exclamantes" was the sequence for the Mass of the Dead. In my opinion this is a far superior sequence which is more appropriate for funerals. You can find it transcribed in Nemisio's Valles excellent dissertation on the Mass and Office for the Dead before the reformation.

http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7536/1/VallePhD2011.pdf

The melody itself is the generic "lauda syon/victorine" type, but the theology of the text is outstanding! I hope to try it with a different melody eventually.



While I am a traditional latin rite orthodox catholic christian, and like the dies irae immensely, it's last judgement theme seems a bit too severe for funerals. In some sense Vatican II liturgical reforms had a point in making it optional (optional being effectively a synonymn for no longer used !), but they never replaced it with anything better either, therefore I am somewhat ambivalent about that beautreacratic decision. I prefer to have it rather than nothing, but I recognize its severety does not appeal to some people. This is probably the only view someone can link me to where I am not in disagreement with Annibale Bugnini, who I think is a very bad man. (He helped officially omit the "Dies irae" in 1969)

Though we all must be judged before Him, the dramatic way it is put in that sequence seems to suggest and stereotype us as universally unrepentent super-sinners at the time of our deaths. This is because the dies irae was never written with the intention that it be used at funerals. I compiled a very accurate english metrical translation for singing purposes, so I know how it sounds in both languages. (The latin text does perhaps help the mystery element to lessen the intensity of the words for those who dont understand it or don't have a missalette handy to read.)

The sequence Dies Irae seems to me to be much more appropriate for the Sunday before Advent or a feast such as Christ the King, or as exists in the Byzantine rite "The Sunday of the Last Judgement"

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Sunday_of_the_Last_Judgment

(Compare the Dies Irae to the: Kondakion (Tone 1)

When You, O God, shall come to earth with glory,
All things shall tremble
And the river of fire shall flow before Your judgment seat;
The books shall be opened and the hidden things disclosed!
Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire,
And make me worthy to stand at Your right hand, righteous Judge! )

Chris, thank you for sharing your dissertation and congratulations on your degree.
I am looking forward to reading your work.

Deo gratias!