I'm just listening to Morricone's 1974 IL SORRISO DEL GRANDE TENTATORE, a score that is basically build around the "Dies Irae" theme. I remembered this thread and of course it's part of the list.
Minor complaint there, fmfan1: You have it filed under "Smile of the Great Temptress" (I assume that should be it) which is badly (to avoid 'wrongly') translated. It's not as bad as the US title of the movie but anyhow...
The literal translation is "The Smile of the Great Tempter". The UK title is just "The Tempter". You can correct your list or not. But I just had to point that out.
I'm just listening to Morricone's 1974 IL SORRISO DEL GRANDE TENTATORE, a score that is basically build around the "Dies Irae" theme. I remembered this thread and of course it's part of the list.
Minor complaint there, fmfan1: You have it filed under "Smile of the Great Temptress" (I assume that should be it) which is badly (to avoid 'wrongly') translated. It's not as bad as the US title of the movie but anyhow...
The literal translation is "The Smile of the Great Tempter". The UK title is just "The Tempter". You can correct your list or not. But I just had to point that out.
Stickler orbital over & out.
Changed! Using the original title is probably best anyway.....
Also:
Master6689, thanks for your suggestions. SISTERS and ARMY OF DARKNESS were good listens! I'm going to be a stickler (like Orbital) and put SISTERS in the "maybe" category. Herrmann has certainly used the Dies Irae, and in SISTERS, the main theme belts out a similar 4-note phrase. While definitely "Dies Irae-like," the intervals are different. With only four notes, it would be difficult to be certain of a reference when those four notes are different. It does FEEL like the Dies Irae.
The ARMY OF DARKNESS score was a real treat. I had never heard it before and had never seen the film. The score exceeded my expectations, even if I was sensing "temp tracking" at times. Nevertheless, I'm not really hearing the Dies Irae. What I AM hearing is something more akin to Cape Fear (Herrmann, again). If you were referring to something else, let me know.
Joe LoDuca excerpts the Dies irea from the 5th movement of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" in the Chucky season finale.
I'm going to count this one. What is probably a needle-drop of some previous performance of the symphony (which I wouldn't include on the list) is immediately followed by a newly arranged synthesized quote (not Berlioz) in the very next scene.
Carlo Savina additionally quotes the Dies Irae motif in his score to the 16th Century drama "L'uomo Che Ride" aka The man who laughs (1966); first with plucked strings, then with harp and finally with French horns.
Carlo Savina additionally quotes the Dies Irae motif in his score to the 16th Century drama "L'uomo Che Ride" aka The man who laughs (1966); first with plucked strings, then with harp and finally with French horns.
You've come across some great examples in Italian films. After your post, I watched L'uomo Che Ride on Youtube in Italian, with auto (terrible) translate. I couldn't tell you what was going on in the film, but the Dies Irae did come out nice and clear at about 57 minutes.
I discovered a few more myself yesterday, all confirmed by watching the films or listening to the soundtracks. The fun part is discovering some really interesting scores.
Yes, and the motif also shows up at about 11 minutes (on plucked strings but barely audible behind the dialogue) and at 80 minutes performed by the French horn.
A while ago I came across a really good video explaining the dies irae and featuring many examples of it in the movies but I can't find it any more. It was around 10mins long, narrated by a male and went into some detail.
All the ones I can find on youtube at the moment isn't the one I'm looking for again. Does anyone have any ideas where I can find it again ?
I don't know if it was mentioned yet, but the video game Dead By Daylight uses a rendition of Dies Irae for its main theme:
Additionally, each killer character has their own version of the theme. Here is a compilation of most variations:
My personal favourites are:
Plague (5:50) Stranger Things / Demogorgon (9:54) Oni (12:25) Blight (22:22) Twins (24:18) Halloween Event theme (28:35) The Lunar New Year Event theme (36:30)
Not featured in the above compilation is the theme for the recent Hellraiser chapter, which is also pretty good:
I've found another example to add to the long list. It's a 42 minute drama made in 1943 by the British Army as a training film and was directed by Carol Reed. The uncredited score is attributed to Richard Addinsell. The film seems to be out of copyright and can be seen on YouTube. The Dies Irae comes in at around 23 minutes. Information about the film and full credits (none are shown on screen) here: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/730052/index.html
I just re-listened to Morricone's score to Giordano Bruno (1973) and noticed that plucked strings quote the dies irae in the intro to the track "Discorsi di un viaggio" (#3).
This won't be news to anyone familiar with an earlier thread on the subject, but I can't resist posing the same question that stumped folks for many months at that time: What is the longest sustained use of the Dies Irae (both tune and text) in a movie? (Yes, it is listed in the present thread.)
The Zero Boys by Stanley Myers & Hans Zimmer quotes the melody. The first 4 notes can be heard at least in tracks 7 and 9 (Notefornote release) and a longer quote in track 11.
I found a CD of the German TV series TATORT featuring music composed by David Reichelt for the recent episode entitled Dreams (2021). I never heard of this composer so far but noticed he wrote variations on the Dies Irae sequence in this score. Listen for instance to this powerful track :
