Latin for ‘Rest’ or ‘Repose’. In a musical context it is often shorthand for the title of a setting of the Requiem Mass.

The Requiem Mass is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is usually celebrated in the context of a funeral. Find out more…

Some composers, notably Brahms, Britten, Howells, Oglesby and Rutter, have composed Requiems using other, often biblical, texts.