Fauré Requiem

In 1902, the great French composer Gabriel Faure said this: “It
has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of
death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is
thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration
towards happiness above, rather than as a painful
experience.  As to my Requiem, perhaps I have also
instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and
proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on
the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something
different."


Faure’s requiem is part of a long tradition of master composers
addressing death through Requiems. Mozart, Brahms, Verdi,
Britten, Berlioz, Beethoven(to a certain extent), and many many
other composers all tried their hands at the Requiem, some of
them keeping to Requiem Mass traditions, and some striking out
completely on their own. Most notably, Brahms barely followed the
traditional Requiem mass at all, preferring to use his own
favorite biblical texts. Faure was also a composer who followed
his own beat throughout his life, and perhaps one of his best
known works is his modest and humble Requiem, which omits the
fire and brimstone of famous requiems like Verdi’s, and focuses
more on what he called the ‘happy deliverance’ of death. 
What results is a remarkably inward looking piece, with only 30
or so measures sung at the loudest possible dynamic. It’s a piece
that only lasts around 35 minutes, and was actually first
performed as part of a liturgical funeral service.  Faure’s
Requiem is music of mysticism and comfort, brilliantly conceived
from start to finish in Faure’s own unique way. We’re going to
talk a bit about Faure the man and the composer today, since it
ties in so much to how he conceived of this requiem, and then of
course, all about the Requiem itself on this Patreon sponsored
episode. Join us!