War Requiem

The War Requiem is a non-liturgical requiem composed by Benjamin Britten as a commission for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral on May 30, 1962 after the original fourteenth century structure was destroyed in World War II bombing raids.

War Requiem is considered one of the landmark choral-orchestral works of the twentieth century.

A pacifist, Britten was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom in choosing the type of music he'd like to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen. Owen, who was born in 1893, was serving as the commander of a rifle company when he was killed in the trenches of France in November 1918, just one week before the Armistice. Although he was virtually unknown at the time of his death, he has subsequently come to be revered as one of the great war poets.

The War Requiem was written for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, choir, boys' choir, organ, and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orchestra). The full orchestra consists of three flutes (third doubling piccolo, two oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets (third doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (four players: two crotales, glockenspiel, gong, tubular bells, vibraphone, cymbals, triangle, temple bowl, whip, bass drum, two snare drums, tambourine, and tenor drum, piano, portable organ or harmonium, and strings. The chamber orchestra consists of flute doubling piccolo, oboe doubling cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion (one player, on timpani, gong, cymbals, bass drum, and snare drum), harp, and string quintet.

The musical forces are divided into three groups that alternate and interact with each other throughout the piece. The soprano soloist and choir are accompanied by the full orchestra and the boys' choir is accompanied by the organ. Between them the soprano and choirs sing the traditional Latin requiem text. Interspersed throughout, the tenor and baritone sing poems by Wilfred Owen, accompanied by the chamber orchestra.

The work consists of six movements:

• Requiem aeternam (10 minutes)
  • Requiem aeternam (chorus and boy's choir)
  • "What passing bells" (tenor solo)
• Dies irae (27 minutes)
  • Dies irae (chorus)
  • "Bugles sang" (baritone solo)
  • Liber scriptus (soprano solo and chorus)
  • "Out there, we walked quite friendly up to death" (tenor and baritone soli)
  • Recordare (women's chorus)
  • Confutatis (men's chorus)
  • "Be slowly lifted up" (baritone solo)
  • Reprise of "Dies irae" (chorus)
  • Lacrimosa (soprano and chorus) interspersed with "Move him, move him" (soprano solo and chorus; tenor solo)
• Offertorium (10 minutes)
  • Domine Jesu Christe (boy's choir)
  • Quam olim Abrahae (chorus)
  • Isaac and Abram ("So Abram rose") (tenor and baritone soli)
  • Hostias et preces tibi (boy's choir)
  • Reprise of Quam olim Abrahae (chorus)
• Sanctus (10 minutes)
  • Sanctus and Benedictus (soprano solo and chorus)
  • "After the blast of lightning" (baritone solo)
• Agnus Dei (4 minutes)
  • Agnus Dei (chorus) interspersed with "One ever hangs" (chorus; tenor solo)
• Libera me (23 minutes)
  • Libera me (soprano solo and chorus)
  • Strange Meeting ("It seems that out of battle I escaped") (tenor and baritone soli); the ending is conflated with
  • In paradisum (boy's choir, then chorus and soprano solo) and
  • Requiem aeternam (boy's choir)

Perhaps the most striking juxtaposition is in the Offertorium, when the choir sings of God's promise to Abraham in a bouncy fugue in 7/4 time ("Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius"—"which once Thou didst promise to Abraham and to his seed"), framing Owen's retelling of the offering of Isaac, in which the angel tells Abraham to:

'...offer the ram of pride instead of him.'

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,

and half the seed of Europe, one by one.

A recurring motif is the tritone of C and F#. The "Requiem aeternam," "Dies irae," and "Libera me" movements end in a brief choral phrase that resolves the tritone's discord, while at the end of the "Agnus Dei" the tenor outlines a major fifth from C to G before moving down to F sharp to resolve the chorus's final chord.

Although there are a few occasions in which members of one orchestra join the other, the full forces do not join together until the latter part of the last movement, when the tenor and baritone sing the final line of Owen's poem Strange Meeting ("Let us sleep now…") as the soprano and choirs sing 'Libera me' ("Deliver me..."), and the boy's choir echoes the "Requiem aeternam" from the beginning of the work.

The overall effect is sombre and Britten presents war as both devastating and futile.

For the opening performance, it was intended that the soloists should be Galina Vishnevskaya (a Russian), Peter Pears (an Englishman) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (a German), to demonstrate a spirit of unity. Unfortunately the USSR did not permit Vishnevskaya to travel to Coventry for the event and, at short notice, she was replaced by Heather Harper.

The premiere took place on May 30, 1962, in the rebuilt cathedral and was a triumph, achieving an impact matched by few works in the twentieth century. Writing to his sister after the premiere, Britten said of his music, "I hope it'll make people think a bit." On the title page of the score he quoted Wilfred Owen: "My subject is War, and the pity of War / The Poetry is in the pity … / All a poet can do today is warn."

A famous recording, featuring Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Britten, was produced in 1963. It quickly sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of classical music at that time. Another recording, featuring Elisabeth Söderström, Robert Tear and Thomas Allen, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle is available. The piece has also been recorded by Kurt Masur, Carlo Maria Giulini, Richard Hickox, Martyn Brabbins, John Eliot Gardiner, and Robert Shaw.

The Southern Hemisphere premiere was in Wellington, New Zealand, on July 27, 1963. John Hopkins conducted the New Zealand National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, with soloists Peter Baillie, Graeme Gorton and Angela Shaw.

The Dutch premiere took place during the Holland Festival, in 1964. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir were conducted by Bernard Haitink; the chamber orchesta (consisting of Concertgebouw Orchestra instrumentalists) by Britten himself. The soloists were Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, in their first public performance together.

An interpretation of the work was performed by the English Chamber Choir at Your Country Needs You, an evening of "voices in opposition to war" organised by The Crass Collective in November 2002.

Derek Jarman has made a film of War Requiem using the 1963 recording.

External link

• Text of the War Requiem