The Song Fight Bulletin Board

They're all good. Some of the best music ever written has been music in requiem masses. What are some favorites? Has anyone written a requiem? I'm trying right now, but I don't know how it will turn out. Anyway, I love Faure's a lot.

People told us to go on a date the week before the wedding where we didn't talk about wedding stuff at all... good idea. We went to see Verdi's Requiem, which was awesome. Dark stuff. Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") comes back like 5 times. Awesome. Anyway, we joked it was a requiem for our single lives. Er, I never wrote one. Sounds difficult. Do you sing Latin?
-bill

Faure's, Verdi's, and Mozart's requiems are all awesome.

Did Vaughn Williams write one? That'd probably be good, too.

And though not specifically the mass text, Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna is meant to be sung as a Requiem, and it's one of the best things ever.

I've sung a lot of masses, so I know my way around the Greek and Latin pretty well, but it's still going to be a hell of a project.

I don't know if it qualifies as a Requiem, but Louis Vierne's "Solemn Mass" is an awesome piece of music, especially the "Kyrie." All sorts of harsh harmonies going on. Lawd have mercy...

Leonard Bernstein's "Kaddish Symphony" is also some pretty wild stuff, though, again, not specifically a requiem mass...

Luke, would you care to explain the difference between a Requiem and a Mass, what texts are "required" to be in each one? Maybe we can have a sidefight. To the death. Or something.

Charles (KA)

A Mass, which is basically Chatholic, is the ritual of the Eucharist set in music. A Requiem is a mass for the dead. Stravinsky and Bernstein wrote two very awesome ones, though Berstein's is almost a Broadway show. Of course that they were two jews writing Mass's is interesting in and of itself.

My memory is pretty foggy but Pope Gregory started the concept of setting the liturgical calendar to music (Gregorian chant anyone?) and this practice evolved over time to setting each part of the scripture, or whatever...which makes it basically a set of show tunes for church.

And to witness a good performance of a musical Mass in a cathedral can be mindblowing.

Also the Durufle Requiem is excellent. Durufle was a student of Faure and has a lot of his style. But, what makes his Requiem notable (besides the fact that it's beautiful and fun to sing) is that all the main themes of each of the movements/sections is based on the melodies from traditional liturgical chant. So the Dies Irae (abandoned in church practice in 1972, since it was felt that its words, which include a graphic account of the terror of the Last Judgement, were no longer appropriate from a theological point of view) is actually the same melody that has been sung to scare little Catholic kids since the 1500's.

Oh yeah, Durufle - I forgot about that one, a good friend of mine sang in that and I was able to procure a CD copy of their performance, which is very cool.
-bill

There is sort of a canon of THE requiems in the concert repertoire, and all the others are considered second class. They are:

Mozart
Brahms
Verdi
Faure

These are all good if you can stand that much choral music.

I actually thought there were six of them, but I can't think of the other two.

i'd like to point out that the dies irae from mozart's requiem is pure fucking evil.

which is why the Mozart is good!!

also, ya gotta hear Toby Twining's Chrysalid Requiem. MIND BLOWING!!
here's the link:
http://www.cantaloupemusic.com/CA21007.html

Oh yeah, of course Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a crappy, crappy crummy, stupid requiem with one really good movement in it.

Jim of Seattle wrote:Oh yeah, of course Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a crappy, crappy crummy, stupid requiem with one really good movement in it.

I never got far enough to hear the good one I guess, which one is it?

Pie Jesu. The rest is pretty horrid, but that one movement almost makes up for it all.

are you kidding me?? the opening theme is great! (can't 'member the name but the first line is "blessed is the man who loves the lord") Bernstein is one of the greatest melody writers of the past century. The Requiem itself, while not trancendant art, is probably the rottenest thing he could have written for the opening of the Kennedy Center. I mean, what could be better than a song and dance number about the hypocracy of rich benefactors performed for the diamonds-and-martinis crowd who paid thousands just to sit there and be insulted??

Bernstein rocks. =)

What's up with all these classical guys? What makes music "good" anyway? Songfight teaches us that it's all a matter of individual taste, and it varies like the chemistry of a schizophrenic mind.

I'd prefer the living works of Chopin and Debussy to any of the afore-mentioned requiems.

If you could called Blind Melon's Nico, a requiem, that would be my all time favorite.

Then there is Megadeth, as well.

I think every songwriter should write their own requiem in advance, as part of the living will. I already have an ever changing requiem CD that'll be in "progress" until I die. Hopefully by then it'll be a 10 disc box set at least. Then again, that could be today, or tomorrow. Good to have it in the works, I guess.

naudy wrote:are you kidding me?? the opening theme is great! (can't 'member the name but the first line is "blessed is the man who loves the lord") Bernstein is one of the greatest melody writers of the past century. The Requiem itself, while not trancendant art, is probably the rottenest thing he could have written for the opening of the Kennedy Center. I mean, what could be better than a song and dance number about the hypocracy of rich benefactors performed for the diamonds-and-martinis crowd who paid thousands just to sit there and be insulted??

Bernstein rocks. =)

Uh, I was talking about Andrew Lloyd Webber, not Bernstein.

And yeah, "A Simple Song" rocks. I sang it for my senior college recital. That's the only thing I know from his "Mass" though.

"I will sing the Lord a new song. To praise Him. To bless Him. To bless the Lord!"

In fact, I think I'm going to go listen to it now...

boltoph wrote: I think every songwriter should write their own requiem in advance, as part of the living will. I already have an ever changing requiem CD that'll be in "progress" until I die. Hopefully by then it'll be a 10 disc box set at least. Then again, that could be today, or tomorrow. Good to have it in the works, I guess.

Dude. Yes.

Tell me if you want any collaborative work from a phunter on that 10 disc box set. I wouldn't mind some Boltoph in my requiem.

Gotta start working on the ultimate cd!..as in, my last.