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About Durufle Requiem
The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Durufle was commissioned in 1947
by the French music publisher Durand and is written in memory of
the composer's father. The work20is for mixed choir with
mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists. It exists in three
orchestrations: one for organ alone, one for organ with string
orchestra, and one for organ and full orchestra.
At
the time the commission arrived, Duruflé was working on an organ
suite using themes from Gregorian chants. Duruflé incorporated
his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses many
themes from the Gregorian "Mass for the Dead." Nearly all the
thematic material in the work comes from chant.
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The work is set in nine
movements. Interestingly, the Dies irae text, perhaps the most
famous portion of the Requiem mass, is not set as a movement by
itself as usual. Overall, however, Duruflé chose the calmer and
more meditative texts from the requiem.
In the full score, the fifth movement, "Pie Jesu," has the only
solo for the mezzo-soprano; in addition, even in the
"organ-only" version of the Requiem, there is an obbligato cello
solo. The baritone soloist has parts in the third movement, "Domine
Jesu Christe," and the penultimate movement, "Libera me."
Duruflé
left indications in the score that, for the baritone soloist at
least, it was preferable to have the choir sing the solos
instead. This has resulted in various forces being used in
different performances, some with both soloists, some with only
the mezzo-soprano, and some (such as Robert Shaw's Telarc
recording) using no soloists at all.
Source:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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