Requiem (Fauré)
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1877 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria "Pie Jesu" (which may be sung by a boy or a woman). Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, "just as Mozart's is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu." [1]
History
There was no certain external occasion for the Requiem's composition. One possible cause is the death of Fauré's father in 1885, and his mother's death two years later on New Year's Eve 1887. However, by the time of his mother's death he had already begun the work, which he later declared was "composed for nothing … for fun, if I may be permitted to say so!" [2]
The earliest composed music included in the Requiem is the "Libera Me", which Fauré wrote in 1877 as an independent work.
In 1887–88, Fauré composed the first version of the work, which he called "[un petit Requiem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)"[3] with five movements (Introit and Kyrie, Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei and In Paradisum), but did not include the "Libera Me". This version was first performed January 16, 1888 under the composer’s direction in La Madeleine in Paris. The treble soloist was Louis Aubert, and the occasion was the funeral of one Joseph La Soufaché, an architect.
In 1889, Fauré added the "Hostias" portion of the Offertory and in 1890 he expanded the Offertory and added the 1877 "Libera Me". This second version, known today as the chamber orchestra version, was premièred January 21, 1893, again at the Madeleine with Fauré conducting.
In 1899–1900, the score was reworked for full orchestra. There is some question as to whether this was the work of Fauré himself or one of his students (see below). This version was premiered April 6, 1900, with Eugène Ysaÿe conducting. It was the best known version until John Rutter rediscovered Fauré's original manuscript of the chamber orchestra version in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in the early 1980s.
In 1924 the Requiem was performed at Fauré's own funeral. It was not performed in the United States until 1931, and then only at a student concert at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. It did not reach England until 1936. [4]
Structure
The piece has a duration of about 35 minutes. It consists of seven movements:
- I. Introït et Kyrie (D minor)
- II. Offertoire (B minor)
- III. Sanctus (E-flat major)
- IV. Pie Jesu (B-flat major)
- V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major)
- VI. Libera Me (D minor)
- VII. In Paradisum (D major)
Text
All text is in Latin, although this piece is not a complete liturgical Requiem. Fauré adjusted the traditional liturgical order, omitting the Sequence (which features the "Dies irae", "Rex tremendae", and "Lacrimosa") and adding "In Paradisum", an antiphon which comes from the Order of Burial, rather than the Mass for The Dead. The Dies Iræ text is found only briefly within the Libera Me, rather than being showcased in a full movement as in the Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi.
Versions and Orchestrations
The work exists in three versions. The original version is the smallest, five movements in length. It is scored for
- mixed choir
- solo boy soprano
- harp
- timpani
- organ
- strings (solo violin, divided violas, divided cellos and basses)
Fauré scored the second version in 1893. In addition to the new movements, this version adds the following instruments to the orchestration:
The third arrangement (which may have been arranged by a student of his) adds more woodwinds, brass, and strings, and was the most commonly performed until the 1980s, when the second version was rediscovered, edited, and championed by John Rutter. This full orchestration comprises:
- mixed choir
- solo boy soprano
- solo baritone
- 2 flutes
- 2 clarinets (only in the "Pie Jesu")
- 2 bassoons
- 4 horns
- 2 trumpets (only in the "Kyrie" and "Sanctus")
- 3 trombones
- timpani (only in the "Libera me")
- harp
- organ
- strings (with just a single section of violins, but divided violas and cellos, as before)
Authenticity of the third version
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Faur%C3%A9_Requiem_manuscript.jpg/220px-Faur%C3%A9_Requiem_manuscript.jpg)
Rutter's preface to the score includes the following discussion regarding the authenticity of the third version:
- "How and why the third version came about is not entirely clear. Dr. [Robert] Orledge surmises that Fauré's publisher Hamelle urged him to prepare a 'version symphonique' in order to secure more performances — to turn the Requiem into a concert work, in fact. In a letter of 1898, Fauré promised Hamelle to prepare the score for publication, though no question of reorchestration was mentioned; Fauré asked, however, if he could delegate the piano reduction for the vocal score to someone else (his favorite pupil Jean Roger-Ducasse was entrusted with the task). The evidence that Roger Ducasse (or someone else) also relieved Fauré of the task of reorchestrating the work is conjectural but, I think, convincing: first. Fauré is known to have delegated the scoring of others of his works to assistants; second, he was burdened with teaching and administrative duties and may well not had the time to rescore it himself; third, the published score has literarally hundreds of misprints and other inaccuracies which the normally meticulous Fauré would never have let past had he been sent the printer's proofs for correction. If he had prepared the score, he would have been sent proofs; the conclusion seems inescapable that someone relatively inexperienced both made the score and read the proofs." [6]
Fauré on his Requiem
- “Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.” [7]
- "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. The music of Gounod has been criticized for its overinclination towards human tenderness. But his nature predisposed him to feel this way: religious emotion took this form inside him. Is it not necessary to accept the artist's nature? 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."[8]
Notes
- ^ Steinberg, 136.
- ^ [Ibid] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), 135, also quoted in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and referenced in the editor's preface to the Rutter edition of the score as being from a letter Fauré wrote to Maurice Emmanuel in March 1910.
- ^ Rutter, 3. Cited there as being from an 1888 letter to Fauré's friend Paul Poujaud.
- ^ Steinberg, 135.
- ^ Fauré quoted in Steinberg, 132.
- ^ Rutter, 3.
- ^ Steinberg, 132–133. Quote's cited date is 1921.
- ^ Richard Bell. "Original score provides a clearer view of heaven." The Boston Globe. March 28, 1989: 25. Also cited at Notes on Fauré's Requiem by James Liu which states that "Fauré was interviewed by Louis Aguettant on July 12, 1902. [This quote] was originally published in Comoedia (1954, p. 6). The English translation is taken from Robert Orledge's biography.
References
- Rutter, John. Preface to Requiem Op. 48, by Gabriel Fauré. Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, 1984.
- Steinberg, Michael. "Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48." Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 131–137.