Light On Dark Water

Weekend Music

Here are two sections of the Duruflé Requiem that I heard last night as part of the Requiem Mass I mentioned yesterday (see here). I was only going to post one, but I couldn’t make up my mind. I thought I remembered my recording, which I haven’t listened to for many years, having an orchestral accompaniment, but the choir last night was accompanied only by the cathedral organ (not that I’m complaining). It turns out there are are three different orchestrations, including one for organ alone. (More facts about the work in the Wikipedia entry.) These YouTube clips are of that version, so closer to what I heard, but last night’s choir had women rather than boys.

A note about the liturgy: I am not a liturgical purist, much less an expert. I found quickly upon entering the Church that I really didn’t have a lot of interest in the finer points, or even many of the fairly broad points, of liturgical practice. I’ve never really asked for much more than some reasonable level of good taste (and as we all know that is still more than we can expect in much of the contemporary Church). And I’ve never been especially drawn to the old Mass, which I’ve experienced only a few times. Last night’s liturgy was of course an impressive and colorful spectacle, but the strongest impression I came away with was of its wholeness and coherence. It was all of a piece; nothing was out of place. The music was beautiful, but not essential to that wholeness. I question whether the new Mass can ever have that kind of integrity. No matter how carefully and tastefully done, and I have been at some that were very well done, it retains a certain choppy and awkward quality. I haven’t tried to figure out exactly why that is; it may have something to do with the Latin.

The cathedral was full, by the way, with no higher a percentage of old people than you would expect at any such event.