Requiem

Puccini wrote this short Requiem in 1905 for the fourth anniversary of Verdi's death, and it was sung that January at the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti in Milan, the home for retired musicians Verdi had founded and where he is buried. It lasts a few minutes and is scored for three-part chorus with organ or harmonium and a solo viola — as far from the Messa di Gloria of his student years as from the operas. It remained unpublished until 1976 and is the only sacred piece of his maturity.