Audio sample

Requiem

Accompanied; SATB; Solo voice

This is one of the best-loved and most widely performed choral works of the twentieth century. The texts (in Latin and English) are from the Missa pro Defunctis, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Psalms. The seven sections form an arch-like meditation on the themes of life and death: prayers on behalf of all humanity, psalms, personal prayers to Christ, and in the central Sanctus an affirmation of divine glory.

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Orchestration: Orchestra: 2.1.2.1-2.0.0.0-timp.glock-hp-str Ensemble: fl, ob, cello, 3 timp, glock, hp, organ

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Duration: 40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy, Moderately Difficult
Published: 09 October 1986
ISBN: 9780193380707

Programme notes

Requiem was written in 1985 and first performed in October of that year.
The seven sections of the work form an arch-like meditation on the themes of life and death…

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John Rutter discusses his Requiem

In the first of a series of short films about the composition of his Requiem (1985), John Rutter discusses the personal and musical impetuses which drove him to begin working on the piece: the death of his father, and an encounter with the original manuscript of Fauré’s setting of the Requiem Mass in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

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Visions and Requiem

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