#6 – Fauré’s “Requiem”, 3rd Mvmt: Sanctus

Now we get to the first influential work that comes from a true requiem: Fauré’s. Gabriel Fauré, a French composer (another one, alongside Debussy and Ravel… catching on to any theme here?) lived between May 12, 1845, and Nov. 4th, 1924. The 3rd movement from his own requiem is the “Sanctus”, which praises God in all His glory. Fauré supports the text wonderfully, with his soft dynamics (i.e., volume), and the swimming voices and strings. This summarizes what I aspire to do with my requiem. I hope to offer solace and comfort to those who have passed on, while also giving strength to those who are still here to carry on and move forward. When first writing the requiem, there seemed to be two ways I could go: write a requiem that imparts the finality, terror, and awfulness of death (i.e., Mozart’s), or write a requiem that offers comfort and solace (like Fauré’s or Duruflé’s as we shall see.) In fact, I tried it the first way, and it did not go well; that was what I threw out when I decided to completely start over in the summer of 2010 (and I’ve been much, much happier with the work I’ve produced since then.) This deserves a quick word on what exactly a requiem is: a requiem (the title coming from the first phrase of the first movement, “requiem aeternam”, i.e., in Latin, “eternal rest”) is a funeral mass. The text is Latin and comes from various liturgical sources. It basically asks for eternal rest (“requiem aeternam”, a recurring theme throughout the text) for those who have passed away. As always, The Fauré Requiem Wiki Page. Enjoy!