Composed between 1887 and 1890, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is not only one of his best-known works but one of the most popular piece of choral music in the Classical repertoire, coming 23rd in the Classic FM’s Hall of Fame 2024. Believed to be a tribute to his father (who died in 1885), Fauré himself said “My Requiem wasn't written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that!” It started life as a five-movement work but was later expanded to be the final seven-movement work we know today. The first version (which Fauré called “un petit Requiem”) was first performed on 16 January 1888, with Fauré conducting, a second version premiered on 21 January 1893 before the final version (reworked for full orchestra) was played on 12 July 1900; the Requiem was performed at the composer’s own funeral in 1924.
The Libera Me, or Deliver Me, was actually written in 1877 and is the sixth part of the Requiem.
Fauré once said of the work, “Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest." Upon interview, he also said, “It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience. The music of Gounod has been criticised for its inclination towards human tenderness. But his nature predisposed him to feel this way: religious emotion took this form inside him. Is it not necessary to accept the artist's nature? As to my Requiem, perhaps I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different.”
This arrangement is for the British-style brass band, with alternative parts for horns in F and bass-clef lower brass. The tenor solo is featured on the euphonium.
A recording of the original composition can be found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwFNoBHCf0
Duration: 4.20 minutes approx.
Difficulty Level: 4th Section +
PDF download includes parts and score.
Sheet music available from www.brassband.co.uk
Instrumentation:
Soprano Cornet Eb
Solo Cornet Bb
Repiano Cornet Bb
2nd Cornet Bb
3rd Cornet Bb
Flugel Horn Bb
Solo Horn Eb
1st Horn Eb
2nd Horn Eb
1st Baritone Bb
2nd Baritone Bb
1st Trombone Bb
2nd Trombone Bb
Bass Trombone
Euphonium Bb
Bass Eb
Bass Bb
Timpani