Music for All Souls’

 

The Requiem of Gabriel Fauré was written in the late 1880s, while Fauré was still assistant organist and choirmaster at L’Église de la Madeleine in Paris. It followed the deaths of both of Fauré’s parents in 1885 and 1887, though it does not appear to have been specifically written for them; he himself spoke of having written “for the pleasure of it.”

Fauré was by nature an agnostic, rather than a faithful Catholic – but it is telling that he returned to the Requiem again and again through his life – editing, improving, changing instrumentations. He chose the texts that appealed to him, the ones that reflected rest and peace, and unlike other Requiem settings that emphasized the Day of Judgement, his one reference to “Dies irae” is a passing section within a “Libera me” that conveys calm certainty.

In the music for this evening’s service we are joined by some members of Richmond Chorus, with Isaac Howie (organ), Miya Otake (harp) and Sarah Westwick (violin). The soloists are our own Tiffany Vrioni-Das (soprano) and Alex Gowans (baritone)

The chorale-prelude, O Mensch, bewein’, sets a Lutheran hymn tune that Bach later returned to in both his St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion. The quiet postlude In Paradisum is based on the traditional Gregorian chant, and was composed by Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002), who was a contemporary of Messaien, with whom he co-founded the group La Jeune France, attempting to re-establish a more human and less abstract form of composition.

Brigid Coult

Commemoration of All Souls takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 6:30 pm.