Requiem (Duruflé)
The Requiem, Op 9 by Maurice Duruflé is a setting of the Latin Requiem Mass for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, mixed chorus, orchestra and organ. The work was written in 1947 as a commissioned work for the music publisher Durand & Cie. 1948 was followed by a version for mezzo -soprano, chorus and organ, 1961 version for chamber orchestra (strings, trumpets, harp, timpani).
Construction
Description of the work
The Requiem by Duruflé is committed to the model of about 60 years earlier created the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré in several ways. As this suggests Duruflé in his composition mainly a comforting, contemplative tone to. Also, the structure of the two works is similar to very strong: from the this - Irae sequence can only conclude Pie Jesu was set to music. For Libera me and the hymn In paradisum from the funeral were taken in the work.
The music is permeated by elements of Gregorian chant. Duruflé wrote: " ... The Requiem is based entirely on issues of the Gregorian Mass for the Dead. Sometimes I have taken the exact musical text, the orchestral parts, only supported or comments, at other points he served me only as a suggestion ... In general, I was anxious to leave penetrate my composition entirely from the particular style of Gregorian themes. "
Actual Gregorian Chant - unaccompanied unison singing in free meter - but does not occur, there is always an independent music of the orchestra or organ, which primed the song or contrasts. Long sections of text to be sung Gregorian unanimously. The melodies are metric listed with frequent change of pace. Most (eg Domine Jesu Christe, Agnus Dei ) and the soprano, if supernatural is addressed (e. B. Te decet hymn sing the men's voices, the alto is used when it comes to an entreaty in Sion in the introitus, In paradisum ). Unanimous singing in two tones of voice acts as another organ stops: the two high voices, the two deep voices or alto and tenor at the end of the Libera me. Particular emphasis will be given texts that are sung in unison by all voices, as Libera eas de ore leonis ( in Domine Jesu Christe ) This illa and Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna.
The intimate Please Pie Jesu, as in Fauré sung by an individual woman's voice is at the center of the composition. Originally a solo baritone was provided, as in the German Requiem by Brahms, Duruflé but later said that he preferred solo voice of the choir for these passages.
The Requiem is mostly quiet and introverted, all the sentences end with a transition to inaudible. Highlights all the more incisive in dynamics and tone on this background. The call Kyrie, which is first fugue ( on a bass that plays the Gregorian melody in magnification), you will hear the second time with eruptive urgency. In Osanna a peal is built up, which reached a long-held radiant chord, when in excelsis. In the Libera me Calamitatis et Misery leads all votes in extreme height.
The work fades away in a seven -part floating chord, "très long".