RequiemChoral/Orchestral sacred music

by Fauré & Forrest

Saturday, May 21st 2016 - 7:00pmWestgate Church, Weston

Sunday, May 22nd 2016 - 5:45pmTrinitarian Congregational Church

The Choir: † indicates solo in Fauré * indicates solo in Forrest

Soprano 1Debbie CraneDeanna Cusano*Mabel EllisKay HarringtonKaren Johnson†Kathryn KiddDorcas McCall*

Soprano 2Sarah CuozzoLia DeligiannidesPJ EnzmannElisabeth HalberstadtSandra Halberstadt

Carol HornerEllen ManganoJanine OwenLori Ozuna Marie Thomas

Alto 1Danielle BodleyJen CalverleyRuth HeppMyung KwakKristin Neprud

Alto 2Janet Creech

Sarah DetweilerMaureen KlautkyAlison MitchellSydney Moody

Tenor 1Eric Andersen*Jim HeppDavid KwakScott Turner

Tenor 2Doran AbelRoyce AbelAlton Moody

Bass 1Ken KeyesAdam KuriharaDJ Matsko†David OwenBill Shultz

Bass 2David BrownBruce BorlandSeth CheneyJohn HalberstadtDavid JenkinsDave Smith

Rachel Kurihara (Flute)Ben Fox (Oboe)Elise Hsuing (Bassoon)Nathan Halberstadt (Horn)Bennet Keyes (Percussion)Mark Fairweather (Timpani)Elizabeth Markey (Harp)Nathan Skinner (Organ)Paul Halberstadt (Violin, viola)Joshua Halberstadt (Violin)Jane Xie (Violin)Eleanor Markey (Violin, viola)Richard Hsuing (Violin)Abby Scott (Violin)Jamie Brown (Violin)Dorcas McCall (Viola)Tristan Wolff (Viola)Elliot Park (Viola)John Egan (Viola)Darcy Montaldi (Viola)Darcy Foreman (Viola)David Hurtado (Cello)Andrew Laven (Cello)Steven Laven (Cello)Dylan Rader (Double bass)Conor Rader (Double bass)Adam Kurihara (Conductor)Drew Halberstadt (Conductor, horn)

Thoughts On Faure’s Requiem

It has been said that fear and deathis not expressed in the Requiem,so someone called it (an irony),

“a lullaby of death.”

No despair, no fear of deathfor Calvary’s resolution

destined for heaven’s home-a child of rag and blossom.No despair, no fear in life

in Jesus’ realm, no lossfor even in this dark refrain

no pain, a cradle song,a lullaby of death.

Kay Harrington 2016

The

Orc

hest

ra:

Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48 (1893 version) Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)1. Introit and Kyrie3. Sanctus4. Pie Jesu 5. Agnus Dei6. Libera Me7. In Paradisum

Requiem for the Living (2013) Dan Forrest (b. 1978)1. Introit and Kyrie2. Vanitas Vanitatum3. Agnus Dei4. Sanctus5. Lux Aeterna

The audience is invited to stand and join us in singing the final song

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee Henry J. van Dyke (1907)Hymn #20 (Saturday) L.V. Beethoven (1824)Hymn #1 (Sunday)

please silence cell phones

Program Texts and TranslationsForrest - Requiem for the Living

1. Introit - Kyrie (Choir)Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

2. Vanitas Vanitatum (Choir)Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas! Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Lacrimosa, et locutus est, pereat dies in qua natus sum.

3. Agnus Dei (Soprano solo)Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis, dona eis requiem.

(Choir, and solo)Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem, miserere nobis, dona eis requiem.

4. Sanctus (Choir)Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis!

5. Lux Aeterna (Soprano solo, and choir)Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine:Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum: quia pius es.Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(Tenor Solo) Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden,and I will give you rest.

(Choir, and soprano solo)Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.Dona nobis pacem.

Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.Hear my prayer, for unto Thee all flesh shall come.Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! (Ecclesiastes 1:2)Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Full of tears, (from the Dies Irae)he said, Let the day perish wherein I was born.

(from Job 3:2-3)

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,have mercy on us; grant them rest.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,grant us peace; have mercy on us; grant them rest.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts.Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.Hosanna in the highest!

May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord,in the company of Thy saints forever:for Thou art merciful.Let perpetual light shine on them.

Come unto me, (Matthew 11:28)all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.Grant us peace.

About the MusicFauré’s Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48

In my work as a church musician I have played music at dozens of funerals. Some of these

services, not all, are undergirded with a deep sense of joy. Despite the very real grief, there is comfort, solace and joy in sharing stories, singing together, crying together, and hearing the truth of the gospel straight from the holy scriptures. I can feel a palpable joy in the room, even if I don’t personally know the deceased, because the family and friends truly believe the words from 1 Corinthians 15:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”“Where, O death, is your victory?Where, O death, is your sting?”

When Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor Op. 48 was first introduced to 19th century France, it was critiqued for lacking the fear and terror of death. “Someone called it a lullaby of death,” Fauré remarked to his biographer Louis Aguettant in 1902, “But that is how I feel death: as a happy deliverance, a yearning for the happiness of the beyond, rather than as a painful crossing.”

Consider the Sanctus. Fauré pairs the quintessential heavenly instrument, the harp, with undulating violas, setting the scene of the throne room of heaven. The text, “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth / Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of Hosts,” taken from Isaiah 6, is the song of the seraphim in the throne room that the prophet Isaiah sees. As the choir is singing, flip to this chapter of the Bible. When we sing, we are echoing and joining in this heavenly worship. The song is picked up again at the end of the Bible in Revelation 4:8. With the elders placing their crowns before the throne, we place all our best things, all our human achievements, and lay before the throne of God as an act of worship. The fortissimo cry of the Tenors and Basses “Hosanna

in Excelsis! / Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (see Matthew 21:9 and Psalm 118:26) points to Jesus as Lord sitting on the throne. Fauré paired this with accented strings and jubilant horn calls, bringing this movement to its most triumphant conclusion.

In the penultimate movement, Libera Me, we hear humanity’s cry for deliverance. The opening Baritone solo (sung by Dominick Matsko) reflects the personal turn in the text, “Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day…” The pulsing bass notes create an ecstatic energy as the soloist cries out this prayer for mercy. The horns announce the entrance of the Dies Irae sequence, a portion of the original text that points to the judgement day of wrath, calamity and misery, but Fauré does not dwell long on this in fear as many composers did (consider Verdi, Mozart, or Britten) but allows the choir to respond with their own cry, a stirring reprise of Libera Me in unison accompanied by the full string contingent.

We end with the peaceful deliverance of the In Paradisum. The staccato flutes of the organ and harp remind us that there is a way to escape the day of wrath because true rest and deliverance from death can be found through faith in Jesus. His death and resurrection show that death is not the final word for those who trust in Him, but rather eternal life and light, lux perpetua!

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;Drive the dark of doubt away;Giver of immortal gladness,Fill us with the light of day!

- Adam Kurihara (2016)

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domineet lux perpetua luceat eis.Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sionet tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.

Sanctus, Sanctus, SanctusDominus Deus Sabaothpleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tuahosanna in excelsis.

Pie Jesu, Domine, dona eis requiemdona eis requiem sempiternam requiem

Agnus Dei,qui tollis peccata mundidona eis requiem.Lux aeterna luceat eis, DomineCum sanctis tuis in aeternum,quia pius esRequiem aeternam dona eis Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis

Libera me, Domine, de morte aeternain die illa tremendaquando coeli movendi sunt et terradum veneris judicare saeculum per ignemTremens factus sum ego et timeodum discussio venerit atque ventura iraDies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriaedies illa, dies magna et amara valde.Requiem aeternam …

In Paradisum deducant Angeliin tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyreset perducant te in civitatem sanctam JerusalemChorus Angelorum te suscipiatet cum Lazaro quondam paupereaeternam habeas requiem.

Rest eternal give them, Lord,and let light always shine on them.It is right to hymn you, God, in Sionand to you will be made a vow in Jerusalem.Hear my prayer, to you all flesh will come.Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, lord have mercy.

Holy, holy, holy,Lord God of hostsfull are the heavens and earth with your gloryhosanna in the highest.

Merciful Jesus, Lord, give them restgive them rest, eternal rest.

Lamb of God,who takes away the sins of the world,give them rest.Let light eternal shine on them, lord,with your saints for eternity,for you are merciful.give them eternal rest, lord,and let light always shine on them.

Free me, lord, from death eternalon that day of dreadwhen the heavens will be shaken and the earthwhile you come to judge the world with fire.I am made to shake, and am afraidawaiting the trial and the coming anger.That day, day of anger, of calamity and misery,that day, the day of great and exceeding bitterness. Rest eternal...

Into paradise may angels draw them,on your arrival, may the martyrs receive youand lead you into the holy city Jerusalem.May the chorus of angels receive you,and with Lazarus, once a beggar,may you have eternal rest.

Texts and TranslationsFauré - Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48

Introit’s prayer for rest. The answer to that prayer is already given, there, in Matthew 11- Christ is our rest. I purposely, then, lined up the English word “rest” with the return of the Latin word “Requiem” in this final movement- you can see it in the score, or hear it in the performance when the tenor solo ends and the choir begins again, “Requiem aeternam”.

Musically, a major work like this allowed me to work out ideas on a much larger scale than I can in, say, a typical 3-4 minute choral anthem. The first movement allowed me to unfold one idea’s possibilities, developing it slowly over a much longer span, gradually adding texture and register and counterpoint until the grief just boils over. The second movement, because of the subject matter, was a great opportunity to write something stern or even a bit “nasty”, instead of sicky-sweet or sappy. By the time I was done, it contained octatonicism, unexpected rhythmic figures, even big tone clusters for the organ pedals. Even though I didn’t use the Dies Irae text, here, I still alluded to the famous Dies Irae chant, musically, all throughout the orchestral accompaniment figures. The third movement was actually very difficult to write even though it sounds simple and direct- it took a long time to get all the musical ideas to feel inevitable, proportionate, and properly paced as they unfold over time. The fourth movement allowed me to experiment with some polymeter, with those perceived groupings of 3 in the harp and percussion while the choir floats over top of them in their own meter; I also had to carefully manage the huge buildup of energy throughout, that culminates in the explosion of energy in the final section. And of course the fifth movement just needed to pull everything together, tie up loose ends motivically, and usher us off into eternal rest. At the risk of stating what many may have already observed, the final three notes in the orchestra are the meta-motive, scale degrees 3-2-1, now inverted into 1-2,….3 (!) where the 3 is major instead of minor. This is the final answer to our prayers for rest, musically speaking- we’ve found it. The door opens, finally, so to speak.

The work was written over a period of probably 16 months or so, from early 2012 through mid-2013.

Frankly, most of my effort was spent discarding ideas that were bad, or mediocre, or clichéd, or decent, or even “pretty good”, in the hopes of only using ideas that were really, truly inspired. It’s a daunting task to set these ancient texts in a modern setting. I tried to write something appropriate to their gravity, and something that would make a lasting impression for some time to come. I hope the end result does, indeed, profoundly affect the listeners- and performers as well.

-Dan Forrest (2013)

“Overall, the work is a prayer for rest (“Requiem”) for the living, as much as for the deceased. It’s a

“grant US rest”, even more than a “grant THEM rest”. The whole work is tied together motivically by the opening three notes that you hear- they form the basis of all the development in the first movement, the pitch material of the accompaniment figure in the second movement (alluding to the traditional Dies Irae plainchant, even though I’m not using the Dies Irae text), the opening of the fourth movement (obviously) where the descent goes one note farther, and starts to find a destination/goal/”rest” if you will), the recap moments throughout the fifth movement, and then, in one last gesture, the final three notes of the entire work are those three pitches, now ascending (instead of descending), as if reaching the heavens.

The first movement pours out the grief of the Requiem and Kyrie prayers, facing grief head-on and grappling with the sorrow that is common to all human existence.

The second movement bitterly portrays the problem of pain that we all wrestle with, and which causes a crisis of faith for many people. It expounds on the “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” refrain from Ecclesiastes, with no small amount of anger and bitterness and “rage against the machine”. The middle section quotes Job, who is the best biblical example we have of the problem of pain, and even he says, in his darkest moment, it would have been better if I hadn’t been born.”

The third movement is the Agnus Dei, out of its traditional order, because at that point in the narrative, I need to see the Lamb of God, who died to redeem mankind from all fallenness- this vanity and pain and sorrow and destruction.

It’s only after recognizing the Lamb of God that we can then turn, in this narrative, to the Sanctus. It becomes a response to the Agnus Dei, instead of prelude to it as in the normal liturgical order. Interestingly, I see the

phrase “heaven and earth are full of Thy glory” as not merely a worship moment, but actually a part of the Divine answer to the problem of pain. Looking to Job again, God’s answer to the problem of pain is literally, “Look at my works of creation- see my transcendent power and majesty” and of course Job is then humbled by the realization. So my vocal score includes a quote of Job 38 at the top of this movement- where God says to Job “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth...when the stars sang together for joy?” As you can see, then, this movement depicts the wonder of the heavens and earth (pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua) as a Divine answer to the problem of pain. My setting of the Sanctus text is literally a depiction of God’s wondrous glory in three different places: the universe (inspired by that Ultra Deep Field picture from the Hubble Telescope), earth as viewed from the orbiting International Space Station (there are fantastic videos on Youtube where you can see the lights of cities (and nations!) at night, territorial boundaries, rivers, the northern lights, thunderstorms, and all sorts of things), and finally, mankind, God’s wondrous image-bearers, who demonstrate his glory even more directly than all the rest of the wonders of the heavens. There are three sections to the piece which are inspired by these three thoughts- an ethereal section for the Hubble image, a warmer section that starts to “come down to earth” with more motion that eventually grows very majestic, and then a bustling energetic final section, coming right down into the middle of a city, teeming with the life and energy of a metropolis full of these image-bearers who are an even more wondrous part of creation than the heavens themselves.

The final movement is simply an arrival at rest and peace, not just in the realization of the “eternal light” which God offers those who seek him, but even here and now, for us, the living, on earth- our Requiem, our Rest, is found in Christ. I purposely quoted “Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you....REST”, because it’s the answer to the

About the MusicDan Forrest on his Requiem For The Living:

About the GospelWhat is the Christian message?

The gospel is the most important news you will ever hear. It is the message of Jesus Christ, the only hope for broken, sinful people living in a broken and sinful world. The word gos-pel means “good news,” specifically the news of what God has graciously done to establish his kingdom and deal with our sin through the life, death, and resurrection of his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.

The gospel is the heartbeat of the Bible’s story. It begins with God and creation. God created everything there is—everything we see and don’t see. He made it all and that means it all belongs to him. He is both the Creator and the King, which means he has the right to decide how life should be lived on his earth. The crowning touch of his creation was humanity, whom he made to be like him and to know, love, and serve him as his children and as his royal rep-resentatives. That’s what we were made for—to know, love, serve God, making much of him and en-joying his presence forever.

Read more atwww.westgate-church.org/the-gospel