Maurice Duruflé's Requiem is heavily influenced by Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, composed some 60 years earlier. Like Fauré's piece, Duruflé's Requiem is primarily soothing and introspective in nature, with a similar structure. Duruflé, like Fauré, only included the "Pie Jesu" from the "Dies Irae" sequence and added the "In Paradisum".
Duruflé was already working on an organ suite based on the Gregorian chants for the Requiem Mass when he was commissioned by his publisher to write a larger work based on the same texts. The final Requiem, originally scored for choir and orchestra, is a combination of Gregorian chant, Renaissance-style counterpoint, and rich harmonies inspired by the works of Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel.
Duruflé's use of Gregorian chant makes his Requiem more adventurous than Fauré's, giving it a timeless quality and adding to its meditative atmosphere. Duruflé said that he "tried to let the special style of the Gregorian themes completely permeate his composition. The emotional "Pie Jesu," sung by a solo female voice and accompanied by a solo cello, is the centerpiece of the Requiem. The Requiem is mostly serene and introspective, with each movement fading into silence.
There are three different versions of the Requiem, created through various revisions: one for choir, full orchestra, and organ; another for a smaller chamber ensemble; and a third for organ and choir only.
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was a private student of Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire, and later studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Paul Dukas, among others. From 1929 he worked as organist at the church of St. Étienne-du-Mont in Paris and traveled internationally as a concert organist. In 1943, he was appointed professor of harmony at the Conservatoire. Duruflé married the organist Marie-Madeleine Chevalier in 1953, and the two often performed together.
Duruflé's small body of work, characterized by skill and originality, is influenced by late Romanticism, Impressionism, and Gregorian chant.
Listen to: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir conducted by Paweł Kapula.
Duruflé was already working on an organ suite based on the Gregorian chants for the Requiem Mass when he was commissioned by his publisher to write a larger work based on the same texts. The final Requiem, originally scored for choir and orchestra, is a combination of Gregorian chant, Renaissance-style counterpoint, and rich harmonies inspired by the works of Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel.
Duruflé's use of Gregorian chant makes his Requiem more adventurous than Fauré's, giving it a timeless quality and adding to its meditative atmosphere. Duruflé said that he "tried to let the special style of the Gregorian themes completely permeate his composition. The emotional "Pie Jesu," sung by a solo female voice and accompanied by a solo cello, is the centerpiece of the Requiem. The Requiem is mostly serene and introspective, with each movement fading into silence.
There are three different versions of the Requiem, created through various revisions: one for choir, full orchestra, and organ; another for a smaller chamber ensemble; and a third for organ and choir only.
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was a private student of Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire, and later studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Paul Dukas, among others. From 1929 he worked as organist at the church of St. Étienne-du-Mont in Paris and traveled internationally as a concert organist. In 1943, he was appointed professor of harmony at the Conservatoire. Duruflé married the organist Marie-Madeleine Chevalier in 1953, and the two often performed together.
Duruflé's small body of work, characterized by skill and originality, is influenced by late Romanticism, Impressionism, and Gregorian chant.
Listen to: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir conducted by Paweł Kapula.