UA department of choral activities presents Fauré Requiem
Taniah Tudor
Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Lifestyles
The UA Schola Cantorum, Concert Choir, Women's Choir and Master Chorale will be performing Gabriel Urbain Fauré's Requiem 8 p.m. today at the Walton Arts Center.
The Requiem is a mass for the dead and a consolation for the living, said Graeme Langager, the director of chorale activities. It is Gabriel Fauré's best-known choral work, according to an article by Susan Martin for The Classical Music Pages Quarterly.
The piece conveys Fauré's personal feelings and attitudes about death, according to the article.
"But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience," said Fauré in an interview by Louis Aguettant on July 12, 1902.
Fauré always wanted to try something new, something different that no one else had done, and he never followed the fads of his day, preferring instead to follow his heart, according to the article. His songs show a continuous personal and unique evolution.
The Requiem is both "peaceful and powerful, energetic and sublime," Langager said. Fauré was an organist and used the chorus almost like an organ, he said.
The piece is 35 minutes long, and it will be performed as a slightly reduced modification of the larger version, he said.
Langager is personally thrilled that the quality of the chorus at the UA has achieved such a high level that they are able to perform this piece. The Requiem is one of the most important orchestral works, and is a piece that almost every university has done at some point, he said.
It has been years since the piece has been performed by the UA, perhaps as long as a decade, Langager said.
"Some student's parents are coming to listen to the same piece that they sang 25 years ago," he said.
The Requiem was written during the turn of the 20th century and was revised several times by Fauré. The piece is written in Latin and the seven movements of Fauré's Requiem are "Introit and Kyrie," "Offertory," "Sanctus," "Pie Jesu," "Agnus Dei," "Libera me" and "In Paradisum."
The Requiem is a mass for the dead and a consolation for the living, said Graeme Langager, the director of chorale activities. It is Gabriel Fauré's best-known choral work, according to an article by Susan Martin for The Classical Music Pages Quarterly.
The piece conveys Fauré's personal feelings and attitudes about death, according to the article.
"But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience," said Fauré in an interview by Louis Aguettant on July 12, 1902.
Fauré always wanted to try something new, something different that no one else had done, and he never followed the fads of his day, preferring instead to follow his heart, according to the article. His songs show a continuous personal and unique evolution.
The Requiem is both "peaceful and powerful, energetic and sublime," Langager said. Fauré was an organist and used the chorus almost like an organ, he said.
The piece is 35 minutes long, and it will be performed as a slightly reduced modification of the larger version, he said.
Langager is personally thrilled that the quality of the chorus at the UA has achieved such a high level that they are able to perform this piece. The Requiem is one of the most important orchestral works, and is a piece that almost every university has done at some point, he said.
It has been years since the piece has been performed by the UA, perhaps as long as a decade, Langager said.
"Some student's parents are coming to listen to the same piece that they sang 25 years ago," he said.
The Requiem was written during the turn of the 20th century and was revised several times by Fauré. The piece is written in Latin and the seven movements of Fauré's Requiem are "Introit and Kyrie," "Offertory," "Sanctus," "Pie Jesu," "Agnus Dei," "Libera me" and "In Paradisum."
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