Requiems Français - the Requiems of Fauré & Duruflé

Join King's Counterpoint chamber ensemble VOX REGIS as we present two of the most popular and beautiful Requiem settings, penned by iconic French composers Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé.  Joined by our very special guest, organist Paul Reese!

Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, between 1887 and 1890. In seven movements, the work is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, mixed choir, orchestra and organ. Different from typical Requiem settings, the Dies irae is omitted, replaced by Pie Jesu, and the final movement In Paradisum is based on a text that is not part of the liturgy of the funeral Mass, but of the burial.  Fauré wrote 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."

Duruflé's Requiem, Op. 9, is a 1947 setting for a solo baritone, mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, and organ. He set the Latin text of the Requiem Mass, omitting certain parts in the tradition of Fauré's requiem and structuring it in nine movements. The thematic material is mostly taken from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant: at the time Duruflé was composing this work he was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregoran chants, and nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant.