Durufle requiem program notes

However, his published works number only eleven, most of which are tied to liturgical themes and texts. His small compositional output results from sharp self-criticism, self-effacing personality, and lack of self-confidence. Eventually, per his self-criticism, he wrote three versions of the score, and for flexibility in the orchestral version, he indicated that a choir could sing the solos.

With this green light, the result has been that presentations of this Requiem vary according to the choice of the presenting organization.

In this concert you will hear a version for orchestra and choir. He also flexed in the movements selected for his Requiem mass, leaving out the Gradual and the Tract, adding a Pie Jesu , Libera me , and In Paradisum.

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I and X deal with Man overreaching himself with the expulsion from Paradise and the building of the Tower of Babel. II, V and IX deal with the frailty of the human will, which has too little faith, a lack of appreciation for what we have and a lack of backbone when times get tough. Two mothers argue over a child they believe to be theirs. The true mother is the one prepared to give up her child rather than harm him.

Wilson adds an eleventh commandment, just as Christ did. As I have loved you, so must ye love one another. He inserts instead the Pie Jesu and ends with In Paradisum.

This, combined with the flowing plainchant rhythms and limpid, impressionist harmonies, gives the piece a contemplative and encouraging character and stands in contrast with the works of Mozart and Verdi for example. The composer produced three versions of the Requiem, with organ or orchestral accompaniment, with and without soloists. Our version is the most pared back and, some might say, most in keeping with its monastic roots.

The opening Introit is sung very gently by the men over a moto perpetuo figure on the organ. The women, as ever, are being ethereal.