Requiem by Maurice Duruflé
10.30am Eucharist on Remembrance Sunday, 8 November
You may have wondered why we always have the same setting of the Requiem on Remembrance Sunday. Surely, you might think, there must be versions other than this one by Duruflé? Well, curiously, suitable settings of the 2,000 year-old text are not numerous. The first millennium was dominated by unadorned plainsong, and the earliest ‘composed’ settings did not appear until the end of the 15th century – the oldest to survive is by Ockeghem (c.1470). A number of sonorous polyphonic settings followed, about 50 of which are still extant – notably those of Palestrina, Lasso, Vittoria and Eustache du Caurroy (whose little-known but rather beautiful Missa pro Defunctis was used for the funerals of all the kings of France from Henri IV to the end of the 18th century). The year 1600 marks another watershed, because after this an operatic mindset took hold of church musicians, who found the temptation to indulge themselves when setting words with such dramatic potential as Dies irae and Rex tremendae majestatis quite irresistible. A short time later instruments were added to the setting by Monteverdi (and others) for the funeral of Cosimo II de’Medici in 1621, and then the Requiem bandwaggon really began to roll.
As Requiem settings became more ambitious, they also became longer, more elaborate and ever less suitable for modern liturgical use. Cherubini’s Requiem in c minor (written in 1816 to commemorate the execution of Louis XVI) begins the Sequence with the sonorous strokes of a Chinese gong – not an item generally available in the average parish church. With Berlioz’s monumental Messe des Morts (1837) and Verdi’s great Requiem (1874) we are virtually out of the church and into the concert hall – it may be immortal music but liturgically it is (to say the least) problematic.
Fauré’s Requiem (1887/8) broke away from all this; he abandoned the images of hellfire and omitted the Dies irae texts to create his consoling ‘lullaby of death’. Duruflé’s Requiem (written 60 years later in 1947/8) adopts a similar outline and attitude, but his language is quintessentially his own. It is not hard to see why this is now one of the most frequently performed of all settings: it is short, practically arranged for choir and organ with two soloists, and its fusion of plainsong, modal tonality and deeply expressive harmonies give it a timelessness which seems especially appropriate to the context of Remembrance Sunday.
Gill Perrin
Introit
Requiem æternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet.
Give them eternal rest, O Lord, and may unending light shine upon them. A hymn, O God, is the least that is worthy of you in Sion, and a song shall be performed for you in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer; all flesh shall come to you.
Kyrie
Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.
Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Sanctus
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.
Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu Domine dona eis requiem sempiternam.
Blessed Jesus, O Lord, grant them eternal rest
Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant them rest for evermore.
Libera me
Libera me Domine de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego et timeo dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira. Dies illa, dies ira calamitatis et miseriae, dies illa ,dies magna et amara valde.
Free me, Lord, from everlasting death on that fearful day when the heavens and the earth are to be moved and Thou shalt come with fire to judge the world. I tremble and fear the judgement and wrath that is to come. That day, that day of wrath, of calamity and affliction: that day, that great and bitter day!
In paradisum
In paradisum deducant angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.
May the angels take you into Paradise, and on your arrival, may the martyrs take you up and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choir of angels take you up, and, with Lazarus, once a beggar, may you have eternal rest.