On Sunday, November 3, at 5:30 p.m., we will observe the Feast of All Souls’ with an extraordinary musical work, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, sung by our choir in the context of a Eucharist service. In the modern church, this feast day is often combined with All Saints’ Day, since most people today only go to church once a week. Thus, many Episcopal churches cram both themes into a Sunday morning service on the First Sunday of November. But originally there was a three-day cycle of Remembrance (The Triduum of Allhallowtide):
- All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) on October 31,
- All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows’) on November 1,
- and All Souls’ Day on November 2.
Each day had their particular focus, with All Saints’ Day remembering all named saints and martyrs of the church, while All Souls’ Day commemorated all those who have passed before us. So it is fitting to sing a Requiem (or Mass for the Dead) for our All Souls’ commemoration. Our Mexican and Latin American neighbors have colorful and festive celebrations of these days known as Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead).
There have been many Requiems composed over the years (think Mozart, Verdi, Fauré, Rutter, etc.) and this year, I have decided to perform Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. Duruflé’s most performed work is the a capella setting of Ubi caritas, traditionally sung on Maundy Thursday, and has been sung many times at Christ & St. Luke’s. Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was born in France and as a boy attended the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he was immersed in two musical traditions: Gregorian chant and the French Impressionistic School. He went on to study organ and composition and eventually became titular organist of St-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris in 1929, a position he held for the rest of his life. He married Marie-Madeleine Chevalier, who was also an organist, and they became a power-couple in the French music world.
Fun fact: The Duruflés came to Christ & St. Luke’s on one of the USA tours in the 1970s and performed the Requiem, with Maurice conducting, Marie-Madeleine playing the organ, and our own Dr. Allen Shaffer (Organist Emeritus) pulling stops.
Duruflé had a relatively small musical output and is more known in church music circles than by mainstream music aficionados. He was a perfectionist that destroyed his own music that he was unhappy with, and thus we are left with a small amount of his output.
His Requiem is a masterwork, blending the traditional Gregorian chant with lush impressionistic harmonies together into one seamless style. To bring this music to life, I have invited my teacher and mentor Todd Wilson, who I studied under at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1987, Todd recorded the complete organ works of Duruflé at the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Dallas, TX. That recording went on to be praised as one of the best recordings of Duruflé’s music ever made. And so it is a true honor to bring my teacher and foremost interpreter of Duruflé’s music to Norfolk to present this exquisite masterpiece to you. We hope you’ll join us.
