{{short description|Song that expresses lament or grief}} {{other uses}} A '''dirge''' ({{langx|la|dirige, nenia<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kennedy |first1=Michael |last2=Kennedy |first2=Joyce Bourne |title=nenia |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199203833.001.0001/acref-9780199203833-e-6419 |website=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |date=2007–2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223135512/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199203833.001.0001/acref-9780199203833-e-6419 |archive-date=23 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as may be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegies.<ref name=Poetry>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/dirge|title=Dirge|work=Glossary of Terms|publisher=Poetry Foundation|access-date=20 August 2022}}</ref> Dirges are often slow and bear the character of funeral marches.<ref name=OxMu>{{cite book|chapter=dirge|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music|editor-last1=Kennedy|editor-first1=Michael|editor-last2=Bourne|editor-first2=Joyce|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/performing-arts/music-history/dirge|via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/dirge|title=dirge|work=Cambridge Dictionary|publisher=Cambridge University Press|access-date=22 August 2022}}</ref> Poetic dirges may be dedicated to a specific individual or otherwise thematically refer to death.<ref name=CCD>{{cite book|title=Concise Catholic Dictionary|chapter=Dirge|date=1944|editor-last=Broderick|editor-first=Robert C.|location=Saint Paul, MN|publisher=Catechetical Guild Educational Society|page=116}}</ref>
The English word ''dirge'' is derived from the Latin ''Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam'' ("Direct my way in your sight, O Lord my God"), the first words of the first antiphon (a short chant in Christian liturgy) in the Matins of the Office for the Dead, based on Psalm 5. The original meaning of ''dirge'' in English referred to this office, particularly as it appeared in breviaries and primer prayer books.<ref name=CathEn>{{cite book|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12425a.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia|chapter=The Primer|author=Thurston, Herbert|volume=12|date=1911|location=New York City|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|via=NewAdvent.org}}</ref><ref name=History>{{cite book|title=The History of the Book of Common Prayer|last=Pullan|first=Leighton|date=1901|edition=3rd|series=The Oxford Library of Practical Theology|editor-last1=Newbolt|editor-first1=W.C.E|editor2=Stone, Darwell|location=London|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co.}}</ref>{{rp|71}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/dirge/|chapter=Dirge|title=An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians|editor-first1=Don S.|editor-last1=Armentrout|editor-first2=Robert Boak|editor-last2=Slocum|publisher=Church Publishing Incorporated|location=New York City}}</ref>
==History== [[File:Dirge of Three Queens.jpg|thumb|right|''Dirge of Three Queens'' (c. 1895), by Edwin Austin Abbey, inspired by ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'']] In the late Medieval period, it was common for Western Christian laity–both men and women–to attend the celebration of the Divine Office (canonical hours) according to various editions of the breviary alongside members of monastic communities.<ref name=CathEn/> However, the complexity of these breviaries proved prohibitive for a layperson to adopt in private use, so certain devotions that were invariable or only varied slightly day-to-day were adapted into primers.<ref name=History/>{{rp|70}}
Among the most consistent devotions within these primers was the Office of the Dead, a popular arrangement of the canonical hours as prayers for the dead. This office was itself typically divided into two hours for recitation at different times of day: ''Dirige'' (equivalent to Matins and Lauds) in the morning and ''Placebo'' (equivalent to Vespers or Evensong) in the evening. Both terms were derived from among first words always said when reciting those hours, with ''Dirige'' starting an antiphon derived from Psalm 5.<ref name=History/>{{rp|71}} Gradually, ''Dirige'' and eventually "dirge" came to refer to not only to the morning hour, but to the Office of the Dead as a whole and its pairing with the Psalms of Commendation (Psalms 119 and 139).<ref name=CCD/><ref name=SOA/>{{rp|210}} This practice was codified in the 1559 standardized primer issued under Elizabeth I, wherein both hours appeared under the collective name ''Dirige''.<ref name=History/>{{rp|71}}
Prior to the English Reformation, translated sections from the ''Dirige'' were among the most circulated vernacular portions of the Bible available in England as recitation by laity of these prayers was common at funerals and gravesites.<ref name=SOA>{{cite book|title=The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400 to c.1580|author=Duffy, Eamon|publisher=Yale University Press|date=1992|location=New Haven, CT}}</ref>{{rp|44, 79–80}} Formal liturgical saying of the ''Dirige''–then legally required to be in Latin<ref name=OxDictPri>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|editor1=Cross, F.L.|editor2=Livingstone, E.A.|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|date=1997|edition=3rd|chapter=Primer|isbn=0-19-211655-X|page=1327}}</ref>–persisted through the first half of the 16th century, with occasional requirements that certain proportions of a parish church's congregation be present for such events.<ref name=SOA/>{{rp|135}}
The word ''dirge'' gradually came to be associated with the variety of funeral hymns it describes today. Among the earliest was a pre-Reformation funeral lament from the Cleveland area of north-east Yorkshire, England, known as the "Lyke-Wake Dirge". The contents are neither scriptural nor liturgical, but rather speak to the means of salvation through Christ via alms-giving.<ref name=SOA/>{{rp|358}} A simultaneous development was a funerary "tariff" wherein those present at the recitation of the canonical ''Dirige'' would be paid a small amount from the estate of the deceased.<ref name=SOA/>{{rp|359}} It is associated with the still-practiced Lyke Wake Walk, a 40-mile challenge walk across the moorlands of north-east Yorkshire,<ref>Cowley, Bill (1959). Lyke Wake Walk (1st edition). Dalesman Books.</ref> as the members' anthem of the Lyke Wake Club, a society whose members are those who have completed the walk within 24 hours.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lykewake.org/dirge.php|title=The Lyke Wake Dirge|website=www.lykewake.org}}</ref> This dirge saw a resurgence in popularity in the 1960s following performances by English folk bands such The Young Tradition and Pentangle.<ref name=Guardian/>
While private devotionals were proliferated under the Reform-minded Elizabeth, the number of permitted public liturgical devotions were targeted for curtailment.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Story of the Prayer Book|author=Dearmer, Percy|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1933|edition=1948|location=London|page=41}}</ref> The ''Dirige'' was retained within the Elizabethan primer over Protestant objections to prayers for the dead and there remained resistance to the public liturgical performance of the devotion.<ref name=History/>{{rp|80}} In 1560 and 1561, episcopal visitors of the Church of England observed with disapproval the continued practice of clerks singing psalms in "dirge-like" fashion.<ref name=SOA/>{{rp|571}}
Since their evolution away from Christian usage, some dirges have intentionally been written to be set to music, while others have been set or reset at later dates. Among the latter cases is the "Dirge for Fidele", a portion of William Shakespeare's play ''Cymbeline'' that was later set to music by multiple composers.<ref name=OxMu/>
==Notable dirges== *"A Dirge", by Christina Rossetti<ref name=Poetry/> *"A Dirge", by Percy Bysshe Shelley *"Dirge for Fidele", by William Shakespeare from ''Cymbeline'', set to music several times, including by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gerald Finzi<ref name=OxMu/> *Lyke-Wake Dirge, repopularized in the 1960s by English folk groups<ref name=Guardian>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/feb/16/lyke-wake-dirge-poem-week|title=Poem of the week: The Lyke-Wake Dirge|author=Rumens, Carol|work=The Guardian|date=16 February 2009|access-date=22 August 2022}}</ref> *"Ring Out Your Bells", by Sir Philip Sidney<ref name=Poetry/>
== See also == *Cumha *Death wail *Funeral march *Keening *Lament bass *Requiem#Music
== References == {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == *Marcello Sorce Keller, “Expressing, Communicating, Sharing and Representing Grief and Sorrow with Organized Sound (Musings in Eight Short Sentences)”, in Stephen Wild, Di Roy, Aaron Corn, and Ruth Lee Martin (eds.), ''Humanities Research: One Common Thread the Musical World of Lament'', Australian National University, Vol. XIX (2013), no. 3, 3–14.
== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline}}
Category:Anglican church music Category:Catholic music Category:Christian funeral music Category:Death music Category:Song forms Category:Laments