• Performing Arts Databases Home

Requiem in tempore belli / Joseph Dillon Ford [notated music]

Title

Requiem in tempore belli [notated music]

Composer

Ford, Joseph Dillon, 1952-2017

Place of Publication/Creation

Sherborn, MA

Published/Created

2006

Type of Material

notated music

Genre

notated music

Publisher

Joseph Dillon For

Distributor

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?Ntt=joseph+dillon+for

Language

Latin

Forms

electronic resource

remote

Physical Description

1 score (12 pages)

Media

unmediated

Carrier

volume

Contents Note

Requiem for choir and strings. Composed by Joseph Dillon Ford. 21st Century, Neo-Classical, Score. 12 pages..

Summary

Requiem in tempore belli -- Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. [Grant them eternal rest, O Lord.] -- Since this choral work was not conceived as liturgical music, Ford has set only the beginning of the Latin -- text, and attempted within eight short sections to distill the essence of the traditional Mass for the -- Dead. Sections 1, 3, and 5 are for SATB chorus alone, with orchestral interludes (sections 2, 4, and 6) -- following each. Only in the final two sections (7 and 8) are choir and orchestra combined. -- In the first section, a contrapuntal presentation in C minor of the text "Requiem aeternam dona eis, -- Domine," the plaintively descending melodic line of the soprano evokes an atmosphere of intense -- sorrow. The orchestral interlude which follows is a grave processional reminiscent of the high Baroque -- that emphasizes the tenebrous lower registers of the strings while modulating to the equally dark key of -- F minor. -- Suddenly, the shadows are pierced as the choir radiantly exclaims in simple syllabic style, "et lux -- perpetua luceat eis" in D-flat major. This powerful supplication is repeated in B-flat minor before the -- voices wax once more polyphonic and softly withdraw. The strings enter briefly at this point, ascending -- hopefully back to the key of D-flat major. -- The fifth section reintroduces the sopranos, altos, and basses in canonic succession ("Te decet hymnus -- Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem"), and the tenors join the basses at the cadence in Bflat -- minor. The orchestral interlude which follows begins canonically, in B-flat minor, pauses -- meditatively, rises up, then sustains a moment of intense tranquility after modulating to C major. -- The seventh section ("Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet") is a classical choral fugato in -- which the singers twice present the subject followed by its tonal answers, firmly reestablishing the -- tonality of C (parallel major to the C-minor with which the Requiem opens). Here the score is marked -- "Allegro gioioso," and there is a dramatic shift to three-four time and a distinctively celebratory, dancelike -- character. The orchestra is introduced only gradually, first when the violins enter with a -- countermelody to the altos, followed by an extended section for tenors with violins and cellos, and -- finally a crescendo in which basses and strings reach a powerful contrapuntal climax, dissolving -- immediately afterwards into a quiet sustained chord on the dominant. -- The final section, whose soprano melody begins as a variant of the fugato subject in slow common time, -- is a sublime polyphonic reiteration of the words, "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine." Instead of -- ending on the tonic, however, Ford "opens the door to another world" by ending unexpectedly on an Emajor -- triad (the "borrowed" dominant of the relative A-minor tonality.) -- "It was my intention in this piece to draw upon music history as a creative resource," says Ford. The -- score does, indeed, reflect his musicological familiarity with styles ranging from renaissance choral -- polyphony through nineteenth-century romanticism, which he has woven into a colorfully complex -- tapestry of sound meant to evoke the breadth and timelessness of the human spirit. He thus invites the -- listener to ponder a line from Emerson's "Quotation and Originality": "If the thinker feels that the -- thought most strictly his own is not his own, and recognizes the perpetual suggestion of the Supreme -- Intellect, the oldest thoughts become new and fertile whilst he speaks them."

Notes

Choir, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass.

ISMN with hyphens: 979-0-58063-027-8

Description based on ISMN data provided by the publisher.

Music notation

Staff notation.

Subject

Requiems

International Standard Music Number (ISMN)

9790580630278

Last Updated: 03-26-2022