Fall Concert, Celebrating Macon’s Bicentennial

Duruflé Requiem Program Notes

Maurice Duruflé wrote his exquisite and transcendent Requiem, Opus 9 in 1947 just after the turbulence of World War II. One of roughly two dozen pieces that Duruflé composed, the Requiem was dedicated to the memory of his father who had died in 1945, five months after the liberation of Paris. Duruflé had been working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chant when he received the commission from his publisher Durand, and used his sketches, based on quotations of chant from the Mass for the Dead, as the source of a nine-movement Requiem. Duruflé had been in a choir school for Cathedral training between the ages of 10–16 and was strongly influenced for the rest of his life by plainsong traditions and modal harmonies. The composer explained in his program notes:

“My requiem is composed throughout on the Gregorian themes of the Mass for the Dead. Sometimes the musical text is completely respected, the orchestral part intervening merely to sustain or comment on it; sometimes I was simply inspired by it, or left it completely, for example, for certain developments suggested by the Latin text, notably in the Domine Jesu Christe, the Sanctus and the Libera. In general, I have sought above all to enter into the characteristic style of the Gregorian themes. Therefore, I have done my best to reconcile, as far as possible, Gregorian rhythm as established by the Benedictines of Solesmes with the demands of modern meter.”

After Vatican II, Gregorian chant was dismissed as being out-moded. Duruflé protested: “Gregorian chant, which seems to some to be a music linked to a dusty past, is in reality very young for us who realize that it has only been known in its original beauty for a short time.” Music critic Robert Hugill wrote, “Around the plainchant, Duruflé wove a gorgeous tissue of sound, unifying disparate elements with sensuous harmonies and seductive scoring.” Duruflé composed three accompaniment versions of his Requiem between 1947 and 1948; one for organ, small chamber orchestra, and full orchestra. Duruflé’s homage to the Fauré Requiem, written some 60 years previously, shares certain structural elements (the same key, similar arrangement of solos, exclusion of parts of the Day of Judgment text, and inclusion of the Pie Jesu motet and closing prayers from the early Christian burial service). More significantly, it shares the same spirit. Instead of focusing on the more operatic, dramatic possibilities of the “Day of Wrath” texts explored by Mozart, Berlioz, or Verdi, Duruflé’s Requiem resonates with forgiveness, consolation and eternal light. Although the serenity of the quiet writing is punctuated in places by marcato ferocity and darkly shifting harmonies, Duruflé keeps returning to the promise of eternal peace. Over and over again, Duruflé comes back to that single word which begins and ends the piece: “Requiem” (rest).

Duruflé summed up his thoughts on the work with this description in his program notes:
“This Requiem is not an ethereal work which sings of detachment from earthly worries. It reflects, in the immutable form of the Christian prayer, the agony of man faced with the mystery of his ultimate end. It is often dramatic, or filled with resignation, or hope or terror, just as the words of the Scripture themselves, which are used in the liturgy. It tends to translate human feelings before their terrifying, unexplainable of consoling destiny. In Paradisum [marks] the ultimate answer of Faith to all the questions by the flight of the soul to Paradise.”