Life in Paris
Requiem by Gabriel Fauré Performed by the Berkeley Community Chorus (June 23, 2025)
If angels sing, one can hear them in Fauré’s Requiem in D minor, Op. 48. The composition produces a visceral experience of everlasting peace and reconciliation.
The audience finds tranquility even by reflecting upon past experiences, both good and bad. Grieving in this case means letting go. Rather than a crescendo, the music finishes with a diminuendo, moving more softly to the end.
Some historians say that it took Fauré up to three years to write and compose this work. They are wrong. It took up to thirteen years between writing and then revising the work between 1887 - 1900.
Despite his dedication to its completion, Fauré declared that he had no purpose for writing his Requiem other than for pleasure. I am not sure Requiem evokes only my pleasure. It’s far deeper than that.
Requiem Op. 48 Gabriel Fauré at Elgise Madeleine
Last night at Eglise Madeleine, the orchestral singers, with the amazing acoustics inside the church, brought heaven into everyday life, at least for that moment. The work is aesthetic perfection, a supernatural experience, the sound of angels speaking not to the intellect but directly to the soul. Listening to the intensity of such beauty makes one cry. Even in a crowded church, every seat taken, people holding up their cell phones (as if that will savor the experience), it’s easy to shut off the mind and escape deep inside the music. The soprano takes the audience to a higher level, that evokes contradictory feelings of longing and letting go. It is to know for only a second the freedom from all earthly needs.
In a traditionally Catholic interpretation, “Pie Jesu,” is a Latin prayer pleading with Jesus to protect the deceased from the wrath of God. The poem has been put to music by several composers that include Mozart, Duruflé—even Andrew Lloyd Weber. From a modern perspective, or at least my own, the poem has more to do with a process of mourning the dead followed by hope, comforting loved ones left behind and promising eternal peace. The composition is rationally sound—that one cannot be sad for long over loss and will eventually find serenity.
In Fauré’s interpretive Requiem, the scales are simple, the voice of the soprano creating movement, bringing light and immense depth into the high notes. Strong acoustics in the church performance of “Jesu Pie” balanced the sound effectively; the lighting and architecture set the mood. A combination of sound, tone, and setting made the listener realize that not only has their loved one crossed safely to the other side, but that the joy of their spirit is right beside them.
