by Music Director David Brown
When you think of a musical “requiem”—the setting of a Catholic death mass—I suspect that despair, fire and brimstone, and orchestral ferocity come to mind. If you are familiar with the classical canon, it’s probably Mozart, Brahms, or Verdi that you imagine. But great music notwithstanding (and don’t get me wrong, I mean great music), how does a UU connect to “judgement,” Latin mass parts, or—for some of us—even God?
About a month ago, our new MLUC chorister, Kate Saylor (also, the fabulous violinist you heard at our partner church service last month) connected me to the Music Director of her former congregation, First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. They are hosting a multi-congregational UU choir performance of a different kind of requiem by French late Romanticist Gabriel Fauré. Sure, it remains a Catholic mass for the deceased—but the standard heft and darkness is flipped upside down, offering an ethereal, sometimes even cheerful musical idiom. In Fauré’s own words about the Requiem, “It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a ‘lullaby of death.’ But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.” Although not all of us connect to the idea of an afterlife (as I do not), I believe that we UUs are an inherently optimistic people—that our religion is a vehicle for benevolence, and the aspiration for a better, more just society. The music of Fauré’s Requiem is not dogmatic or punishing, but evokes wonderment, accessible complexity, and a sense of the unknown.
As you may have guessed by now, without hesitation, I told First Unitarian to count us in! This Friday night, Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at First Unitarian, 26 of our MLUC Choir members will join the singers of five UU choirs from the Greater Philadelphia Area to perform the Fauré Requiem along with some short selections that feature each individual choir. We welcome you to come support our 100+ member combined choir for a $25 suggested donation, with all proceeds benefiting the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.
But don’t worry: If you can’t make it to Philadelphia, we’ve planned to bring a piece of the concert back to you this Sunday. The MLUC Choir will present four selections from the Fauré Requiem during the service, including the “Agnus Dei,” “Sanctus,” “Pie Jesu,” and closing with “In Paradisum”—the vision for a new beginning, and preserving optimism in the face of darkness. Fauré’s promised land may have been a heavenly afterlife, but what brighter world might we promise to ourselves here and now?
Together we will sing hymns #116: “I’m On My Way” and #121: “We’ll Build a Land.”
Hope to see you on Friday in Philadelphia, then on Sunday!