DIENTZENHOFER, FAMILY
German architects originally from Aibling in Bavaria, divided into two branches, one active in Bamberg and the other in Prague. The oldest representative of the Bamberg branch is GEORG (d. 1669 at Waldsassen), who built the church of St Michael in Bamberg.
More notable are JOHANN LEONARD D. and JOHANN D., brothers. The former, active in Bamberg from 1667, died in that city in 1726. In 1707 he worked on the construction of the bishop’s residence while also building the abbey. Other works include the convent and abbey of Banz near Lichtenfels and the convent of Schönthal on the Jagst. JOHANN continued his brother’s work; he built the cathedral of Fulda and then the magnificent castle of Pommersfelden and the church of the convent of Banz. All three architects worked by translating into Alemannic idiom the architectural language of Italian taste. Georg remained faithful to the Vignolesque precepts enshrined in the church of the Gesù, while Johann Leonard and Johann inclined more toward Borrominian forms, not without some French influence.
To the Bavarian branch of the family belongs CHRISTOPH (b. 1655 at Aibling, d. 1722 at Prague), to whom many buildings were assigned that develop themes of Italian origin, especially those of Guarini; however, the precise limits of his activity are unknown.
More famous is his son KILIAN IGNAZ (b. at Prague in 1689, d. there in 1751). In Vienna he became acquainted with the work of J. B. Fischer von Erlach and L. Hildebrandt, whose influences he fused with the Guarinesque elements he had inherited from his father’s early instruction. His masterpiece is perhaps the church of Vodílky in Bohemia; he worked intensively in Prague, where he succeeded in giving a distinctive character to many architectural spaces in the city. Besides the fine church of St Thomas, those of St Bartholomew and of SS Peter and Paul, St John of Nepomuk, St Catherine, etc., are also remembered. Many convents and palaces in Prague and elsewhere are also attributed to him, though it is not excluded that part of this output was executed by his assistants or followers.
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DIES IRAE (Sequence)
The *Dies Irae* is obligatory at all Requiem Masses, except the daily one, in which, when not sung, it may be omitted.
The musical theme of the *Dies Irae* is taken from the antiphon *Ego sum qui sum*, from the first psalm of the Easter Nocturn. It may also be compared with the verse of the responsory *Libera me* (indeed some authors maintain that the *Dies Irae* is nothing other than a trope of this verse), and it is developed in a manner that departs greatly from the serenity of Gregorian melodies that illustrate the thought of death: these create an atmosphere of peace and light, while the *Dies Irae* conveys the terror of the final judgment. This theme inspired, in classical polyphony, Palestrina, Victoria, O. Vecchi, F. Amerio, etc., while in later centuries the sequence was freely set to music with a secular and at times melodramatic character (Mozart, Cherubini, Verdi). In the modern era the original theme resurfaces here and there in compositions by Berlioz (*Symphonie fantastique*, *Grande Messe des Morts*), Liszt (*Symphonie zu Dante’s Divina Commedia*, *Inferno*), Saint-Saëns (*Danse macabre*), etc.