TR reference to "Dies Irae" which pops up in other books

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Cf. also

"The doubtful 'Whitechapel' version (c. 1670) has 'This tryst or odious
awry, O Niccolo,' which besides bringing in a quite graceless Alexandrine,
is difficult to make sense of syntactically, unless we accept the rather
unorthodox though persuasive argument of J.-K. Sale that the line is
really a pun on 'This trystero *dies irae*....' This, however, it must
be pointed out, leaves the line nearly as corrupt as before, owing to no
clear meaning for the word *trystero*, unless it be a pseudo-Italianate
variant on *triste* (= wretched, depraved)." (TCoL49, Jonathan Cape 1967,
p. 102)

"He held, for instance, to a mirror-image theory, by which any period of
instability for Thum and Taxis must have its reflection in Tristero's
shadow-state. He applied this to the mystery of why the dread name should
have appeared in print only around the middle of the 17th century. How had
the author of the pun on 'this Trystero *dies irae*' overcome his
reluctance?" (ibid., p. 163)

Italics in the original.

A Maas for the dead indeed.


Heikki

On Mon, 4 Jul 2011, Edward A Moore wrote:

> "Dies irae" means "day of wrath in latin. . .
>
> TR p796
>
> "?Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla . . .
> Tell me, did they sing that out here?
> ?Where?
> ?The Mass, you said you had a Mass sung for the dead.
> They sing that sometimes, in Masses for the dead, swinging the
> censer to kill the smell of the living."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae
>
> In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, the main theme is based on
> Hector Berlioz' interpretation of the Dies Irae as he used it in his
> "Symphonie fantastique".
>
> Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V. includes direct references to Dies Irae
> in chapter 9:
> "Somewhere in the house (though he may have dreamed that too) a chorus
> had begun
> singing a Dies Irae in plainsong
>
> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used the first, the sixth and the seventh
> stanza of the
> hymn in the scene "Cathedral" in the first part of his drama Faust (1808).
>
> Symphonie Fantastique: Dies Irae
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od7KTNOzQi8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
>
> This is the first stanza of the poem "Dies Irae":
>
> "Day of wrath! O day of mourning! See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
>
> Heaven and earth in ashes burning!"
>
> And these are Berlioz's own program notes:
>
> "He sees himself at a witches sabbath, in the midst of a
> hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of
> every kind who have come together for his funeral.
> Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts
> which seem to be answered by more shouts.
>
> ed
>