'Libera Me' is a responsory that is usually sung in the Catholic Church at funerals, as part of the service of prayers for the dead, after the Requiem Mass and before burial. A cantor begins The responsory who sings the versicles alone, and the responses are sung by the choir.
It has been set to music by a number of different composers including including Tomás Luis de Victoria, Anton Bruckner, Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, Igor Stravinsky, and Benjamin Britten,
Fauré included it in his requiem
What are the lyrics to 'Libera Me'?
Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day, When the heavens and the earth shall be moved, When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath, When the heavens and the earth shall be moved.
That day, day of wrath, calamity and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness, When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.
What are the original Latin lyrics to 'Libera Me'?
Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem.
Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra.
Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, dies magna et amara valde Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.