Today's featured pick was chosen because I randomly found said song playing during a weird dream sequence in a random Italian TV series I happened to watch a few days ago.
With that random trivia out of the way, let the fun begin...
Requiem from Dies Irae (レクイエム 怒りの日より) Verdi| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PS2 5, Taiko Wii 1 | x4 (154) | x4 (222) | x6 (345) | x7 (409) |
| Taiko 3DS 1 | x4 (154) | x4 (222) | x6 (345) | x6 (409) |
| Taiko PS2 5, Taiko Wii 1 (2P) | x4 (150/150) | x4 (198/202) | x6 (322/323) | - |
Taiko PS2 5, Taiko Wii 1, Taiko 3DS 1
177.33-180.91
none
clsikaOnce translated by us on this blog as the 'Wrath of Requiem' due to the Japanese quotation being a more liberal interpretation of its source's actual name, this is actually one of the most iconic choruses from Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)'s Messa da Requiem, a custom musical setting of funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. This requiem was written in Paris by Verdi in memory of Italian humanist and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, who was highly admired during the composer's adult life; for that reason, the Requiem is sometimes referred to as the Manzoni Requiem, with its first performance occurring on May 22nd, 1874, exactly one year after Manzoni's death.
Structured in seven different sections, the fragment of the Messa da Requiem that was ported for console-exclusive Taiko gameplay means is the iconic chorus from its second portion: the Dies Irae (Latin for 'Day of Wrath'), rendered in the Japanese title with the literal 'Ikari no Hi' nomenclature that is also (partially) quoted in its SongID. The portion has been inspired by the namesake Latin hymn coming from the Medieval literary tradition, which in turn acted as the muse for many other musical composition across the ages, such as another Requiem that was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nearly 100 years prior to Verdi's Requiem.
Aside from its official song ports in Taiko gaming as of today, the Messa de Requiem's Dies Irae chorus has been featured in a number of different situation in the series across the years; in its debut PS2 Taiko title it's the track played during the Blast Lovelove Donko! minigame, while in the later-released Chibi Dragon to Fushigi na Orb it's the introductory track being played in said game's Story mode against the rage-possessed dragon Raruko (and considering the meaning of the Dies Irae Latin expression, the song choice makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?). Of course, however, the most notable quotation of this Classic piece in Taiko lore lies in the infamous 1STPAI, the creepily mysterious song that lies buried inside the unused data of the second Taiko Wii title.
Being a PS2-5-era song addition, the Requiem's Dies Irae in Taiko comes with 2-Player notecharts for the KFM mode sets, which were ultimately scrapped in the song's portion on its more recent console outing. The easy-to-follow patterns withsome Don-prevalent note clusters sprinkled in at an always-changing BPM value for each stanza made it so that the song would receive a difficulty de-rating for its Oni mode as well.
