The final movement is the best known part of the symphony, thanks to its use in the Julia Roberts movie, Sleeping With The Enemy. It features a four-part structure, which Hector Berlioz described in his own program notes from 1845 as follows:

“He sees himself at a witches’ Sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the Sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae.”

The Dies irae melody is one of the most-quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many diverse composers.

The traditional Gregorian melody has also been used as a theme or musical quotation in a number of  classical compositions, notable among them:

• Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Prose des morts – Dies irae H. 12 (1670)
• Thomas Adès – Totentanz
• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte)
• Ernest Bloch – Suite Symphonique
• Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique, Requiem
• Johannes Brahms – Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, No. 6, Intermezzo in E-flat minor
• Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind – Opening theme for The Shining, 1980
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – 24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195: “XII. No hubo remedio” (plate 24)
• Michel Chion – “Dies Irae” (on The Roots 2014 album …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin)
• George Crumb – Black Angels (1970)
• Michael Daugherty – Metropolis Symphony 5th movement, “Red Cape Tango”; Dead Elvis (1993) for bassoon and chamber ensemble
• Gerald Fried – Opening theme for The Return of Dracula, 1958
• Donald Grantham – Baron Cimetiére’s Mambo
• Jerry Goldsmith – scores for The Mephisto Waltz (1971) and Poltergeist (1982) – quoted during the track “Escape from Suburbia”
• Charles Gounod – Faust opera, act 4
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 103, “The Drumroll”
• Gustav Holst – The Planets, movement 5, “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age”; Ode to Death for chorus and orchestra (1919)
• Arthur Honegger – La Danse des Morts, H. 131
• Gottfried Huppertz – Score for Metropolis (1927)
• Aram Khachaturian – Symphony No. 2
• Franz Liszt – Totentanz
• Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen II (soundtrack), “Into the Unknown”
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2, movements 1 and 5
• Ennio Morricone – “Penance” from his score for The Mission
• Modest Mussorgsky – Songs and Dances of Death, No. 3 “Trepak”
• Nikolai Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 6, Op. 23
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1, Op. 13; Symphony No. 2, Op. 27; Symphony No. 3, Op. 44; Isle of the Dead, Op. 29; The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43; Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, Piano sonata No. 1, Études-Tableaux, Op. 39 No. 2
• Ottorino Respighi – quoted near the end of the second movement of Impressioni Brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions)^[23]
• Leonard Rosenman – the main theme of The Car (1977)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony), Requiem
• Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14; Aphorisms, Op. 13 – No. 7, “Dance of Death”
• Stephen Sondheim – Sweeney Todd – quoted in “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” and the accompaniment to “Epiphany”
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Sequentia cyclica super “Dies irae” ex Missa pro defunctis and nine other works
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony, Orchestral Suite No. 3
• Eugène Ysaÿe – Solo Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 “Obsession”

Free sheet music from IMSLP for the basic Dies irae

Free sheet music from IMSLP for the basic Symphonie fantastique (look under Arrangements and Transcriptions)

The basic Gregorian Chant

An animated version of the  Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath from Symphonie fantastique.  Can you hear the Dies irae in this?  It starts around 3:18.

Leonard Bernstein conducts the “Orchestre National de France” in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
5th Movement

Arranged for piano

A listening guide