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War Requiem

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War Requiem, Opus 66 is a non-liturgical requiem composed by Benjamin Britten. It is a large-scale work scored for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, boys' choir, organ, and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orchestra). It has a duration of approximately 85 minutes.

Contents

Composition

The War Requiem was commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral on May 30, 1962 after the original fourteenth century structure was destroyed in World War II bombing raids. As a pacifist, Britten was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom in choosing the type of music he would like to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen. Owen, who was born in 1893, was serving as the commander of a rifle company when he was killed in the trenches of France in November 1918, just one week before the Armistice. Although he was virtually unknown at the time of his death, he has subsequently come to be revered as one of the great war poets.

Orchestration

The musical forces are divided into three groups that alternate and interact with each other throughout the piece. The soprano soloist and choir are accompanied by the full orchestra, the baritone and tenor soloists are accompanied by the chamber orchestra, and the boys' choir is accompanied by a small portative organ (this last group ideally being situated at some distance from the full orchestra). The soprano and choir sing the traditional Latin Requiem text while the tenor and baritone sing poems by Wilfred Owen, interspersed throughout.

The full orchestra consists of three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets (third doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), two bassoons and contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (four players: two crotales, glockenspiel, gong, tubular bells, vibraphone, cymbals, triangle, temple bowl, whip, bass drum, two snare drums, tambourine, and tenor drum, piano, portable organ or harmonium (a grand organ is called for only in the Libera Me), and strings.

The chamber orchestra consists of flute doubling piccolo, oboe doubling cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion (one player, on timpani, gong, cymbals, bass drum, and snare drum), harp, and string quintet.

Movements and structure

The work consists of six movements:

Perhaps the most striking juxtaposition is in the Offertorium, when the choir sings of God's promise to Abraham in a bouncy fugue in alternating 6/8 and 9/8 time ("Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius"—"which once Thou didst promise to Abraham and to his seed"), framing Owen's retelling of the offering of Isaac, in which the angel tells Abraham to:

:'...offer the ram of pride instead of him.'
:But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
:and half the seed of Europe, one by one.
As the male soloists sing the last line repeatedly, the boys sing "Hostias et preces tibi, Domine" ("Sacrifice and prayers we offer thee, Lord"), paralleling the sacrifice of the Mass with the sacrifice of "half the seed of Europe" (a reference to World War I).

The interval of a tritone between C and F# is a recurring motif, the occurrence of which unifies the entire work; this interval, often called "Diabolus in musica," may represent the diabolical nature of war. The "Requiem aeternam," "Dies irae," and "Libera me" movements end in a brief choral phrase that resolves the tritone's discord to an F major chord, while at the end of the "Agnus Dei" the tenor (in his only transition from the Owen poems to the Requiem liturgy, on the key words, "Dona nobis pacem" - Give us peace) outlines a perfect fifth from C to G before moving down to F sharp to resolve the chorus's final chord. At the end of the "Dies irae", the tenor sings (from Owen's "Futility") "O what, what made fatuous sunbeams toil, to break earth's sleep at all?" The notes of "at all" form the tritone and lead into the choir's formal resolution.

Four other motifs that usually occur together are distinct trumpet calls: a rising arpeggio, a falling one followed by a repeated note, a repeated dotted fifth ending in a minor arpeggio, and a descending scale.

Although there are a few occasions in which members of one orchestra join the other, the full forces do not join together until the latter part of the last movement, when the tenor and baritone sing the final line of Owen's poem Strange Meeting ("Let us sleep now…") as "In Paradisum deducant" ("Into Paradise lead them...") is sung first by the boys' choir, then by the full choir (in 8-part canon), and finally by the soprano. The boys' choir echoes the "Requiem aeternam" from the beginning of the work, and the full choir ends on the resolved tritone motif mentioned above.

Première and performances

For the opening performance, it was intended that the soloists should be Galina Vishnevskaya (a Russian), Peter Pears (an Englishman) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (a German), to demonstrate a spirit of unity. Unfortunately the USSR did not permit Vishnevskaya to travel to Coventry for the event and, at short notice, she was replaced by Heather Harper.

The premiere took place on May 30, 1962, in the rebuilt cathedral with the City of Birmingham Orchestra and Melos Ensemble conducted by Meredith Davis and the composer. There was a profound silence between the final notes and the applause. It was a triumph, achieving an impact matched by few works in the twentieth century. Writing to his sister after the premiere, Britten said of his music, "I hope it'll make people think a bit." On the title page of the score he quoted Wilfred Owen: "My subject is War, and the pity of War / The Poetry is in the pity … / All a poet can do today is warn."

The Southern Hemisphere premiere was in Wellington, New Zealand, on July 27, 1963. John Hopkins conducted the New Zealand National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, with soloists Peter Baillie, Graeme Gorton and Angela Shaw.

The Dutch premiere took place during the Holland Festival, in 1964. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir were conducted by Bernard Haitink; the chamber orchestra (consisting of Concertgebouw Orchestra instrumentalists) by Britten himself. The soloists were Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, in their first public performance together.

An interpretation of the work was performed by the English Chamber Choir at Your Country Needs You, an evening of "voices in opposition to war" organised by The Crass Collective in November 2002.

Recordings

The most famous recording of all, featuring Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Britten, was produced in 1963. It quickly sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of classical music at that time. Recording engineer John Culshaw reports that Vishnevskaya threw a tantrum during the recording, thinking she should be placed with the male soloists instead of the choir. Another recording, featuring Elisabeth Söderström, Robert Tear and Thomas Allen, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle is available. The piece has also been recorded by Kurt Masur, Carlo Maria Giulini, Richard Hickox, Martyn Brabbins, John Eliot Gardiner, and Robert Shaw.

Derek Jarman has made a film of War Requiem using the 1963 recording.

External link

 

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