The ASU Choral Union performed a Requiem by Maurice Durufle on Saturday evening, April 1, 2006. I’ve been a huge fan of the music from our two previous concerts, but I liked this music best of all. (Who knows, maybe I’m too easy to please or just like whatever is current.)
Requiems have been written by many composers, and performed many times. Which is why I think the words tend to get lost – at one level we’ve heard the words “too many” times; at another level, the words are in Latin and many are not decipherable. But when you think about it – the words couldn’t be more dramatic. These words were written in a world where life spans were short, and where death was all around, often happening mysteriously and suddenly. This also was a world where everyone believed that God was judgmental, that they were sinners, and that they literally suffered physical pain eternally – whether by fire or whatever – if one was not among those graced by mercy at the Last Judgment.
That gives a different ring to the words of the Requiem. How about one selection:
Libera me, Domine, de morte æeterna, in die illa tremenda, in die illa: Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra dum veneris judicare sæculum per ignem Tremens factus sum ego et timeo,dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira. Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, dies illa, dies magna et amara valde. (Deliver me, Lord, from everlasting death in that dread day, that day when
heaven and earth will be moved, and you shall come to judge the world by fire. I tremble and am full of fear, as I await the day of reckoning and the wrath to come. That day, the day of wrath, calamity, and sorrow, that great day of exceeding bitterness.) Pretty scary stuff.
The work lets up at the end with
In Paradisum – a palpable difference in tone. After all the fear and impassioned pleading, the work concludes with a beautiful expression of confidence in mercy. That last piece opens with sopranos and altos, like a chorus of angels. Very nice.
An organization named the “Colorado Choir” has two of the Requiem pieces on its website:
http://www.coloradochoir.com/. Hit the link for “Recordings” and scroll down.
Anyway, I was a huge fan. The composer (Maurice Durufle) wrote the work with two different accompaniments – one for orchestra, one for organ. We did it with organ. The CD with orchestra sounded more compelling. Oh well. Durufle built the work on a foundation of Gregorian Chant, which is part of the reason it works so well. You can read about Durufle at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durufle.
Next up: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (the “Resurrection Symphony”) on April 28 at Gammage Auditorium. The baritones have to hit a G over middle C at one point in this piece, which could be funny.
