Requiem (Fauré)

No.	Title	Solo	Choir	Key	Time	Tempo	Notes	Theme
I	Introit et Kyrie
	Requiem aeternam		SATTBB	D minor		Largo
	Requiem aeternam		T			Andante moderato
	Te decet hymnus		S
	Exaudi		SATTBB
	Kyrie		SATB				first SAT in unison
II	Offertoire
	O Domine		ATB	B minor		Adagio molto
	Hostias	B			3/4	Andante moderato
	O Domine		SATB			Adagio molto
	Amen		SATB	B major
III	Sanctus		S TB	E-flat major	3/4	Andante moderato	T and B in unison
IV	Pie Jesu	S		B-flat major		Adagio
V	Agnus Dei
	Agnus Dei		T	F major	3/4	Andante
	Agnus Dei		SATB
	Agnus Dei		T
	Lux aeterna		SATTBB
	Requiem aeternam		SATTBB	D minor		Adagio	first like the Introit
				D major	3/4	Andante
VI	Libera me
	Libera me	B		D minor		Moderato
	Tremens		SATB
	Dies irae		SATB		6/4	Più mosso
	Luceat eis		A B			Moderato	unison
	Libera me		SATB			Moderato	unison, as the soloist first
	Libera me	B	SATB
VII	In Paradisum
	In Paradisum		S	D major	3/4	Andante moderato
	Jerusalem		SATTBB
	Chorus angelorum		S
	Requiem		SATTBB

The structure of Fauré's work bears striking similarity to that of Ein deutsches Requiem by Brahms, although Fauré set Latin liturgical texts to music, whereas Brahms chose German Bible quotations. Both works have seven movements, both employ a baritone and a soprano soloist, the baritone singing with the choir in movements 2 and 6, the soprano in a central movement, movement 4 in Fauré, movement 5 in Brahms where she appears with the choir. In both works, the four remaining movements are sung by the choir alone, whereas Verdi, for example, has the soloists sing several arias and ensembles in his Requiem.

Copy of the manuscript showing bars 4–7 of the Introit and Kyrie

Similar to Mozart's Requiem, the work begins slowly in D minor. After one measure of just D in the instruments, the choir enters pianissimo in six parts on the D minor chord and stays on it in homophony for the entire text "Requiem aeternam" (eternal rest). In gradual progression of harmony and a sudden crescendo, a first climax is reached on "et lux perpetua" (and lasting light), diminishing on a repeated "luceat eis" (may shine for them). The tenors repeat the prayer alone for eternal rest on a simple melody. The sopranos continue similarly that praise is due in Jerusalem, then all voices exclaim "Exaudi" (hear).

The Kyrie begins with the same melody that the tenor sang before, but now in unison of soprano, alto and tenor, repeated in the following four measures in four-part harmony. The call "Christe" is strong and urgent the first time, repeated more softly a few more times. The final call "Kyrie" appears pianissimo.

Requiem aeternam, dona eis Domine
Et lux perpetua,
Luceat, luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion
Es tibi redetur votum in Jerusalem
Exaudi, exaudi, orationem meam
Adte omnis caro veniet
Adte omnis caro veniet
Kyrie, kyrie, kyrie eleison,
Kirie eleison, eleison, eleison,
Christe, Christe, Christe eleison,
Christe, Christe, eleison, eleison, eleison

The Offertoire begins in B minor with a canon of alto and tenor in short succession on a simple modal melody with little ambitus, in a prayer "O Domine, Jesu Christ, rex gloriae" (O Lord, Jesus Christ, King of Glory) to free the souls of the departed from eternal punishment and the deep lake, ending in unison. The sequence is repeated beginning one step higher for the next line, and again one step higher for the following more urgent call to Jesus, enforced by the basses. The voices add only softly, broken by rests, what the prayer is about: "ne cadant – in obscurum" (that they may not fall into the darkness).

The baritone enters with "Hostias et preces", offerings brought with praises, beginning on one repeated note, but asking with more melody "fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam" (make them, Lord, transcend from death to life). The choir repeats the first line of the text on the same motif as in the beginning, but in more elaborate polyphony in four parts, concluded by an uplifting Amen in B major.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriae
Libera animas defunctorum de poenis inferne
Jesu Christe, rex gloriam,
Libera animas defuntorum de ore leonis,
Ne absorbe at Tartarus
O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, O Domine Jesu Christe,
me cadant in obscurum
--
Hostias et precestibi, Domine,
laudis offerimus ... [to finish]

Sanctus (Holy), in contrast with other compositions of Mass and Requiem where it is often illustrated with great vocal and instrumental forces (particularly Verdi's Requiem), is here expressed in extremely simple form. The sopranos sing softly in a very simple rising and falling melody of only three notes, which the male voices repeat, accompanied by arpeggios on the harp and a dreamy rising melody in the violins (sometimes just a solo violin). The pattern appears several times, with the melodies increasing in ambitus, and the volume reaching forte on "excelsis" (the highest). The orchestra changes tone, the dreamy accompaniment is replaced by firm and powerful major chords with a horn fanfare marked forte, and the male voices declare "Hosanna in excelsis" (praise in the highest). This is answered by the sopranos in diminuendo, and the music softens and reverts to the dreamy harp arpeggios that it began with as the violin melody floats upwards to the beautiful final note in E-flat major and the full choir repeats, helped by the organ, with the altos finally joining: "Sanctus".

The solo soprano (or treble) sings the prayer to the "good Jesus" for everlasting rest. The one line of text is repeated three times, the first two times asking for "requiem" (rest), then intensified for "sempiternam requiem" (everlasting rest). The first call is a modal melody in B-flat major of six measures, the second call is similar but reaching up higher. The words "Dona eis, Domine, dona eis requiem" begin with more expansion, but reach alternating between only two notes on two repetitions of "sempiternam requiem". The last call begins as the first and leads again to alternating between two notes in even lower range, until the last "requiem" has a gentle upward motion.

"Agnus Dei", in many settings of Mass and Requiem set with dark expression, begins in F major with a fluent expansive melody in the orchestra. After six measures, the tenors sing a melody to it that gently rises and falls, and repeats it almost the same way. Then, while the motion in the orchestra stays the same, the key changes to the minor mode, and the Lamb of God is asked for rest in chords of daring harmonic progression. Then the tenors, without instrumental introduction, repeat the first line, leading to a peaceful "sempiternam".

The sopranos alone begins the following section "Lux aeterna luceat eis" (Light eternal shine for them) with a long "Lux", then the choir, divided in six parts, lets that light shimmer.

The choir closes with a reprise of the Introit, the opening of the Mass ("Requiem aeternam"), before the orchestra picks up the "Agnus Dei" melody to close the movement.

The baritone soloist sings the first section alone. On a bass in an ostinato rhythm of two quarter notes, a rest and the upbeat to the next two quarters, he sings the text "Libera me ..." (Free me, Lord, from eternal death on that terrible day when the heavens will move and the earth, when you come to judge the world with fire.), embarking on a melody of wide range, with some sharp leaps. The text is continued by the choir in four parts in homophony: "Tremens factus sum ego" (I am trembling). In more motion, "Dies irae" (day of wrath) is expressed by fortissimo chords, giving way to the prayer for rest in the same motion, but piano, with a crescendo on "dona eis, Domine", but suddenly softening on a last "et lux perpetua luceat eis". Then the choir repeats the opening statement of the baritone fully in unison. Soloist, then choir, end the movement softly, repeating "Libera me, Domine".

The text of the last movement is taken from the Order of Burial. "In paradisum deducant angeli" (May angels lead you to paradise) rests on a continuous shimmering motion in fast broken triads in the orchestra. The sopranos sing a rising expressive melody, enriched by chords of the other voices, divided in six parts, on the final "Jerusalem". A second thought is again sung by the sopranos, filled on the last words by the others: Requiem aeternam.

Five of the seven sections of the Requiem were completed by January 1888 and performed that month at the Madeleine for the funeral of the architect Joseph Lesoufaché.[5][n 1] This version lacked the Offertoire and Libera me, which Fauré added at some time in the following decade.[13] The Libera me predates the rest of the Requiem, having been composed eleven years earlier as a baritone solo.[3] The forces required for the original 1888 version were a choir about forty in number consisting of boys and men (the Madeleine did not admit female choristers), solo boy treble, harp, timpani, organ, strings (solo violin, divided violas, divided cellos and basses). For a performance at the Madeleine in May 1888 Fauré added horn and trumpet parts.[14]

Fauré continued to work intermittently on the Requiem, and by 1893 he judged the score ready to be published (although the proposed publication fell through). Several attempts have been made to reconstruct the score as it was in 1893. The Fauré specialist Jean-Michel Nectoux began working on it in the 1970s,[15] but the first edition to be published was by the English conductor John Rutter in 1989.[15] Nectoux's edition, jointly edited with Roger Delage, was published in 1994. They had the advantage of access to important source material unavailable to Rutter: a set of orchestral parts discovered in 1968 in the Madeleine and a score made in the 1890s by a bass in the Madeleine choir and annotated by Fauré.[15] Music & Letters judged the Rutter edition, "makeshift and lacking in the standards of scholarship one expects from a university press".[15] The Musical Times considered the Nectoux and Delage edition "invaluable".[16]

Fauré's own manuscript survives but, as the critic Andrew Thomson puts it, "the waters were muddied by his overwritings on the original MSS, adding two bassoons and two more horns and trumpets, together with modifications of the cello and bass parts."[16] Reviewing the Nectoux and Delage edition, Thomson wrote of "several pleasant surprises [including] the restoration of the urgent timpani rolls underlining 'Christe eleison', and the ethereal harp chords which so enhance the spiritual atmosphere of 'Lux aeterna'".[16]

For the 1893 version a baritone solo, two bassoons, four horns and two trumpets are added to the original scoring. When possible Fauré employed a mixed choir and a female soprano soloist, partly because the soprano lines, particularly the solo in the Pie Jesu, are difficult to sing and demand excellent breath control, easier for adult women than for boys.[17]

At the end of the 1890s Fauré's publisher, Julien Hamelle, suggested that the composer should rescore the Requiem for performance in concert halls. The intimate sound of the earlier versions was effective in liturgical performances, but for the large concert venues, and large choral societies of the time, a larger orchestra was required. The autograph of the resulting 1900 version does not survive, and critics have speculated whether Fauré, who was not greatly interested in orchestration, delegated some or all of the revision to one of his pupils.[n 2] Many details of the augmented score differ from Fauré's own earlier amendments to the original 1888 manuscript. The new score was published in 1901 at the same time as a vocal score edited by one of Fauré's favourite pupils, Jean Roger-Ducasse,[19] and some critics have speculated that he reorchestrated the full score at Fauré's instigation.[20] Others have questioned whether so skilled an orchestrator as Roger-Ducasse would have "perpetrated such pointlessly inconspicuous doublings", or left uncorrected the many misprints in the 1901 edition.[21] Alan Blyth speculates that the work may have been done by someone in Hamelle's firm.[21] The misprints have been corrected in later editions, notably those by Roger Fiske and Paul Inwood (1978)[21] and Nectoux (2001).[22]

The orchestration of the final version comprises mixed choir, solo soprano, solo baritone, two flutes, two clarinets (only in the Pie Jesu), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets (only in the Kyrie and Sanctus), three trombones, timpani (only in the Libera me), harp, organ, strings (with only a single section of violins, but divided violas and cellos, as before).

Nectoux has expressed the view that what he terms the "church" (1893) and the "concert" (1900–1901) versions of the Requiem should both be performed, the choice of edition being dictated by the size of the venue.[16] It is not clear whether the composer favoured either version over the other. Blyth comments "All of his comments about the Requiem ring truer as descriptions of the 1888 and 1894 [sic] versions than of the published text of 1901".[21] Fauré, however, complained in 1921 that the orchestra at a performance of the work had been too small,[23] and commented to Eugène Ysaÿe on the "angelic" violins during the Sanctus in the full orchestral version.[24]

• Lisa Beckley; Nicholas Gedge; Schola Cantorum of Oxford; Oxford Camerata Instrumental Ensemble; Jeremy Summerly (1994).

• Caroline Ashton; Stephen Varcoe; Cambridge Singers; City of London Sinfonia; John Rutter (1984). Recommended by The Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings (2011) and The Gramophone Guide (2012).[29][30]
• Judith Blegen; James Morris; Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Orchestra; Robert Shaw (1987). Recommended by The American Record Guide (2000).[31][32]
• Sandrine Piau; Stéphane Degout; Maîtrise de Paris; Orchestre National de France; Laurence Equilbey (2008). Recommended by The Gramophone Guide (2012).[30]
• Grace Davidson, William Gaunt, Tenebrae, London Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, Nigel Short (2011). Recommended by Richard Morrison, Building a Library, BBC Radio 3 (2016).[33]

• Victoria de los Ángeles; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Chorale Élisabeth Brasseur; Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; André Cluytens (Saint-Roch, Paris, 1963). Recommended by All Music Guide to Classical Music (2005).[34]
• Robert Chilcott; John Carol Case; Choir of King's College, Cambridge; New Philharmonia Orchestra; Sir David Willcocks (1967). Recommended by The Gramophone Guide (2012).[30]
• Kathleen Battle; Andreas Schmidt; Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra; Carlo Maria Giulini (1986). Recommended by All Music Guide to Classical Music (2005).[34]

• Blyth, Alan (1991). Choral Music on Record. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36309-8.
• Duchen, Jessica (2000). Gabriel Fauré. London: Phaidon. ISBN 0-7148-3932-9.
• Ford, Andrew (2002). Undue Noise: Words About Music. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ISBN 0-7333-1057-5.
• Jolly, James; David Threasher (2011). The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2012. Teddington: Haymarket. ISBN 978-0-86024-924-5.
• Jones, J. Barrie (1989). Gabriel Fauré – A Life in Letters. London: B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-5468-7.
• March, Ivan; Edward Greenfield; Robert Layton; Paul Czajkowski; Alan Livesey (2011). The Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-95525-3.
• Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1979). Phonographie de Gabriel Fauré. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. ISBN 2-7177-1467-7.
• Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1991). Gabriel Fauré – A Musical Life. Translated by Roger Nichols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23524-3.
• Orledge, Robert (1979). Gabriel Fauré. London: Eulenburg Books. ISBN 0-903873-40-0.
• Park, Chang-Won; Davies, Douglas J. (28 June 2013). Emotion, Identity and Death: Mortality Across Disciplines. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4094-8179-9.
• Rutter, John (1984). Preface to Requiem Op. 48, by Gabriel Fauré. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Hinshaw Music. ISBN 978-0-8052-0047-8.
• Steinberg, Michael (2005). "Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48". Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 131–137. ISBN 978-0-8052-0047-8.
• Woodstra, Chris; Gerald Brennan; Allen Schrott (2005). All Music Guide to Classical Music. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-865-6.