Trumpets sounding, the dead being raised before the throne, in fulfillment of these words from John 5:28: “The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.”
B flat Major, Andante, 62 mm. for Trombone and 4 vocal soloists.
Tuba mirum
The Tuba Mirum, the “trumpet sending out wondrous sound,” is one of three movements in the Requiem for four vocal soloists. This movement also includes a solo for tenor trombone, the "trumpet" whose "wondrous sound" opens the movement.
In Latin, tuba (nominative case) is a feminine noun meaning trumpet. But mirum is the masculine-accusative form of the adjective ‘wondrous’. Grammatically, the two words do not agree. It is not the trumpet that is wondrous.
Its solemn fanfare is the trumpet that will sound on Judgment Day to summon all creatures, living and dead. The vocal soloists enter in ascending order from lowest voice to highest. When the soprano enters, she peaks in the first person, “I”, asking how she can answer the judge, and what patron she can find to plead her case—a standard practice in Roman law. The four vocal soloists join together in chordal texture, interpolated between orchestral chords, to repeat and emphasize the last line of the text: "cum vix justus sit securus?"
Bass: Tuba mirum spargens sonum
The trumpet, streaming out its wondrous sound
per sepulcra regionum,
through the sepulchers of all regions
coget omnes ante thronum.
compels all before the throne.
Tenor: Mors stupebit et natura,
Death and nature alike will be astounded
cum resurget creatura,
when all creation rises again
judicanti responsura.
to answer to the judge.
Liber scriptus proferetur
A written book will be brought forth
in quo totum continetur,
in which all is contained,
unde mundus judicetur.
whence the world will be judged.
Alto: Judex ergo cum sedebit,
Therefore when the judge will sit,
quidquid latet apparebit,
whatever is hidden will appear,
nil inultum remanebit.
and nothing will remain unavenged.
Soprano: Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
What then am I, a wretch, to say?
quem patronum rogaturus,
what legal patron shall I ask for,
cum vix justus sit securus?
when even the just man is hardly safe?
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