Brand New English Requiem

[Guest]

I've been made aware by a friend that there's a brand new requiem in the offing - in English, based on the BCP. The first performance is on Tuesday evening at 9pm, and apparently you can listen/watch live on the webcam. Can't recommend or otherwise though, as obviously nobody's heard it yet, but I have heard two pieces by Chris Hutchings, both excellent IMO.

It's from the chapel at Glasgow Uni, which I gather has rather a good organ, and the DoM is James Grossmith.

See first article here:

http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/

[BasilHarwood]

Hope it's better than the Walford Davies one...!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hope it's better than the Walford Davies one...!

But surely you died before the Hutchings one was written, though I suspect you were well acquainted with Walford Davies.

I was amused by your biography.

[jean]

How can a Requiem be based on the BCP?

[Simon]

Perhaps I should have said a "type of" requiem, Jean. I really don't know. I was passing on the info I got in an email. I did have a quick look at the site, but didn't have much time to spend on it. I'll have a look around further now, before I go to bed!

[amateur51]

How can a Requiem be based on the BCP?

Simon knows, never fear

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How can a Requiem be based on the BCP?

Hmm. Perhaps in the same way that Brahms' German Requiem is based on the Lutherian Bible texts?

You're correct: it can't "really" be a "Requiem", but the word has much more resonance than "Funeral Service" as a title of a piece of Music, perhaps?

[Gabriel Jackson]

Hmm. Perhaps in the same way that Brahms' German Requiem is based on the Lutherian Bible texts?

You're correct: it can't "really" be a "Requiem", but the word has much more resonance than "Funeral Service" as a title of a piece of Music, perhaps?

A Requiem can be anything you want it to be. It's just a title...

[jean]

I think it's got to have something to do with a person or persons having died and being (we hope) at rest.

[AjAjAjH]

How can a Requiem be based on the BCP?

Good point. You will find no prayers for the dead in the BCP not even in the Funeral Service.

[DracoM]

Presumably there is a case for waiting to see what texts this particular upcoming piece uses instead of pre-judging what is and what is not proper to THIS 'requiem', BCP or whatever.

As Simon has very clearly said, he doesn't know what is in the piece, the piece has not yet even been performed, and he is merely passing on info. Seems a perfectly reasonable office to perform for a friend.

As to whether you can include 'anything you want it to be' I would have thought is, as jean politely remarked, at the very least open to question and might raise eyebrows just a tad. One's first thoughts might be that a 'requiem' marks a death in some way, is usually serious in tone, chooses texts that have a thought-provoking character, be they religious [whatever that means] or not, and a number of modern requiems from Brahms onward have not.

Setting the lyrics of the Beach Boys 'Rhonda' and calling it a 'requiem' might not quite fill the bill.

[ahinton]

I've been made aware by a friend that there's a brand new requiem in the offing - in English, based on the BCP. The first performance is on Tuesday evening at 9pm, and apparently you can listen/watch live on the webcam. Can't recommend or otherwise though, as obviously nobody's heard it yet, but I have heard two pieces by Chris Hutchings, both excellent IMO.

It's from the chapel at Glasgow Uni, which I gather has rather a good organ, and the DoM is James Grossmith.

See first article here:

http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/

I know nothing of the composer but I can confirm that the organist at Glasgow University Memorial Chapel is one of the finest I have ever heard.

[DracoM]

Well, it would seem that the Requiem is free to all comers, no tickets required.

[Wolsey]

It just so happens that the CD of Gabriel Jackson's Requiem (2008) was released at a concert last Saturday, an occasion which was combined with a 50th birthday celebration for him. http://www.vasarisingers.org/jackson-launch/

[hutchingsmusic]

http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/requiem-libretto.pdf

The libretto is drawn *mostly* from the BCP, but there are also additions from the King James version of the Bible, and the last couple of movements are translated directly from the Latin requiem.
If anyone, after viewing the libretto, still wishes to disagree with this being called a Requiem, they are welcome to come up to Scotland and "discuss" it with me in person :)
We felt during the commissioning process that there wasn't a good Requiem entirely in English available, and that many people might be better able to connect with one in English than in Latin. Hopefully this will fill a gap.
I do encourage any doubters (and indeed non-doubters) to listen to the performance online:
www.gla.ac.uk/services/chaplaincy has a live webcam streaming from the Chapel. 9pm tonight.