Rachel+Staffin+RP+Post+7


 * It's All in the Music **


 * Requiem: Program Note by the Composer **
 * by Christopher Rouse **

On July 12, 2002, Christophe Rouse completed his choral work titled Requiem. His inspiration was Hector Berlioz, whose Requiem Rouse praises as "one of the most stupendous and imaginative of all such works." The piece is also modeled after Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem”, as it borrows some of the Latin text that Britten incorporated into his Requiem. Christopher Rouse states that his goal of the work was to “use the chorus… to express the enormity of death in its deepest context” and then he goes on to describe how he uses the music to portray that emotion. For example, he connects with the audience on a personal level by featuring a bass-baritone soloist that serves to adopt the “classic figure of the ‘Everyman’ whose life is marked by the deaths of loved ones around him.” Next Rouse gives the reader a summary of his Requiem, listing the titles of the poems he used as well as the main idea of each section. When listening to Rouse’s Requiem, one may believe the work is a tribute to 9/11 victims, however Rouse tells his readers and listeners that “some tragedies were too enormous to consecrate with anything more than deep but silent grieving.” This Requiem is a tribute to all the dead and their grieving loved ones. It is a common belief that death is the end of all, but Rouse ends with a song about birth in hopes of providing “some sort of solace” to his listeners.

Rouse, Christopher. "Christopher Rouse - Composer - Requiem." //Christopher Rouse - Composer - Requiem//. N.p., 2007. Web. 03 June 2014. .
 * Works Cited: **