Requiem

Gabriel Fauré's Requiem is probably the best-known and most frequently performed choral work of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a choral conductor and organist, Fauré strove to create a new style of church music that set itself apart both from the bel canto that prevailed in Paris and from the expansive style of German Romanticism that dominated much of Europe.

His unmistakable musical language laid the foundations for the subsequent impressionist school of Debussy and Ravel, who was Fauré's pupil. The Requiem exists in versions for the church (1893) and for the concert hall (1900). It is almost unique in its expression of sublime serenity, which is achieved above all through its angelic finale "In Paradisum" and the omission of a complete Dies irae sequence. The work is characterized by Fauré's belief that death is "rather a happy redemption, a striving for bliss in the hereafter, than a painful experience."

This piano reduction is based on Desmond Ratcliffe's version published by Novello in 1975. Fauré's original tempo markings and the subtleties of his dynamic markings have been retained, while some of the breath marks which the composer set but which are considered dispensable in contemporary notation have been removed. The passages for tenor voices in the Introitus and Agnus Dei should be sung by all the lower voices.

If this is not possible, the line can be sung by a mixture of higher male and alto voices.

Editor's note: Naturally, this SAM sound edition sometimes presents challenges with a slightly higher level of activity than the original SATB version, and in some places slightly altered entries of the voices in the polyphonic sections were also necessary. Nevertheless, the original orchestral accompaniment can be used together with this version without any restrictions, and the work can also be performed effortlessly with the piano reduction.