Unusually, it’s the pace (peace) word that’s predominant in Fauré’s setting of the Requiem, the Mass for the Dead.

Many composers – Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, to name but the most famous – seem to have taken a certain grisly and theatrical delight in portraying the terrors of the Day of Judgement as depicted in the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) section of the service:

And who can blame them? The sequence; with its trumpets of death, the wicked being consigned to hell fire and and the good eternally redeemed; gives an epic opportunity for composers to enjoy themselves making a lot of noise while letting their choral and orchestral hair down.

Not so Fauré: Fauré’s work is typically quiet and restrained — he omits most of the Dies irae — focusing on the peace and rest of what follows the turbulence of our lives.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as “fair use”, for the purpose of study, and critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner(s).