Four notes recall death

Features
Written By Edward Wolfe

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement

The four notes are me-Re-me-Do, or in D Dorian, F-E-F-D.

You’ve probably heard these notes from the ancient tune “Dies irae” and maybe not even known it.  From Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, the tune casts its spell in the cinema and symphony alike.  This 6-minute Canadian Broadcasting short musical history of death brings out some of the surprising story of the tune.  Note: seems to be filmed all in one continuous take! 

You can hear a performance of the ancient, Gregorian chant here. This recording is in F Dorian. 6 minutes

CBC video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLgvKwOYniY

Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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