GABRIEL FAURÉ  Requiem, Op. 48

Gabriel Fauré was a fine organist, appointed in 1896 to the prestigious Madeleine church in Paris. He was also an excellent teacher but, perhaps because of his renowned expertise as organist and teacher, only slowly gained recognition as a composer. He eventually became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire and its Director from 1905 to 1920.

Fauré deliberately avoided the grander kind of orchestral music that could easily have brought him fame and fortune; thus, many criticized him for lacking depth, a judgment made on the belief that the bigger and bolder a composer’s music the more worthwhile it must be. He instead embraced an elegant, subtle, and melodic musical language of which he is now a recognized master.

The Requiem was composed in 1888 when Fauré was in his forties, quite probably in response to the recent death of his father. Shortly after its first performance, Fauré’s mother also died, giving the work an added poignancy. In its sequence of movements the Requiem departs significantly from the standard liturgical text. Fauré included two new sections, the lyrical Pie Jesu and the transcendent In Paradisum, with its soaring vocal line and murmuring harp accompaniment. He also omitted the Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum—for most composers an opportunity to exploit to the full the dramatic possibilities of all the available choral and orchestral forces. Consequently, the prevailing mood is one of peacefulness and serenity, and the work has often been described, quite justly, as a Requiem without the Last Judgment.

Of the many settings of the Requiem, this is probably the most widely loved. In comparison with the large-scale masterpieces of Verdi, Brahms, and Berlioz, Fauré’s setting seems gentle and unassuming, yet it is this very quality of understatement that contributes so eloquently to the work’s universal appeal, and it is impossible not to be moved by the ethereal beauty of this humble masterpiece.

Adapted from notes by John Bawden

Structured in seven movements, the Requiem begins with the Introit and Kyrie, which opens solemnly, almost monolithically, as if time has suddenly stopped. The entry of the voices in the Offertoire highlights one of Fauré’s lovely and mysterious modal melodies, sung in canon by the tenors and altos in close harmony as they plead for the freeing of the souls of the departed. The short Sanctus begins ethereally and rises to a triumphant climax before quickly settling back into its sweet reverie. Pie Jesu features the soprano soloist accompanied by simple harmonies. The Agnus Dei movement is introspective, expansive, and flowing. Libera Me is the most somber music of the whole Requiem, an impassioned plea for liberation and redemption. In Paradisum, the famous and otherworldly finale, brings the work to a prayerful closure in which the treble voices again float ethereally through a beautiful and simple melody.

In a 1902 interview, Fauré commented: 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: a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.”

“Those aware of musical refinements cannot help admire the transparent texture, the clarity of thought, the well-shaped proportions. Together they constitute a kind of Fauré magic that is difficult to analyze but lovely to hear.” Aaron Copland

John V. Sinclair