Exequies

What it means

Exequies, from the Latin “exsequiae” for “funeral rites,” denote the funeral service and, in a musical sense, the mourning music composed for it. The term covers both the liturgical ceremony and works that honour the deceased with singing and instruments.

Musical use

Best known are Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien, written in 1636 for the funeral of Prince Heinrich Posthumus Reuss. The work combines Bible verses and chorale stanzas that the deceased had chosen himself for his coffin into a multi-part funeral music and counts as a main work of Protestant Baroque church music.

The exequies should be distinguished from the requiem, the mass for the dead with a fixed Latin text, and from the epicedium, the lament for a particular person. Exequies denote the whole funeral service and can include both forms.

Performance practice

Read the text before listening or singing: in Schütz, the Bible words determine the shape of each section. Note the alternation of choir, soloists, and instruments and shape the transitions calmly, without breaking the sustained seriousness of the whole.