DIES IRE, the name generally given (from the opening words) to the famous medix val hymn on the last judgment. On account of the solemn grandeur of the ideas which it brings before the mind, as well as the deep and trembling emotions it is fitted to exite, it soon found its way into the liturgy of the church. Tile authorship of the hymn has been ascribed to Gregory the great, St. Bernard of Clairyaux, Lmbertus, and Frangi pani, the last two of whom were noted as church-hymnists; lint in all probability it pro ceeded from the pen of the Franciscan, Thomas of Celano, a native of Abruzzi, in the kingdom of Naples, who died about the year 1255. When the church adopted it, and made it a portion of the service of the mass, cannot be ascertained with any exact ness, but it must have been in any case before 1385. Several alterations were then made in the text; that, however, is believed to be the original which is engraved on a marble tablet in the church of St. Francis at Mantua. Germany has produced many transla
tions of the hymn, such as those of Schlegel, Fichte, and Bunsen. It was translated into English by Richard Crashaw in the 17th c., and by Lord Macaulay, Lord Lindsay, the Rev. Isaac 'Williams of Oxford. and others in our own day. Sir Walter Scott has introduced two or three of the opening verses into his Lay of the Last Minstrel. The following are the most effective stanzas of the original Latin: Dies irm, dies ilia Soivet smelum in Myrna, Teste David emu Sibylla.
Tuba mirum sp,rgeus sonum Per sepuiehra regionum Coget omnes auto thronum.
More stupebit et nature, resUrget creature responsory..
Di'ESIS, a term used by the ancient Greeks, in the division of musical intervals; of which they had three varieties. In modern music, the D. is understood to be the difference between the small and the great semitone, as from C to 0 sharp, and from C to D fiat.