American composer Jeremy Beck “knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. … [In] Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world … the writing is concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.”  — Gramophone

The Acis release of Jeremy Beck’s REQUIEM for mixed chorus and string orchestra is the artistic culmination of a multi-year project, one that was interrupted but also fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. For it was the isolation and space created by the pandemic that allowed Beck to drive his earlier work on the REQUIEM to its conclusion in 2019.

A Requiem (or a Requiem Mass) is also known as a Mass for the Dead. It is a Mass of the Catholic Church that may be used during a funeral for an individual or a group of people. The title comes from the opening words of the Latin text, Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (“Grant them eternal rest, O Lord”). Outside of a liturgical context, the words and form of the Requiem have inspired composers to create concert works in this genre, composers as diverse as Mozart, Verdi, Ligeti, and Christopher Rouse. Certain of these works, like the Rouse and Britten’s War Requiem (which inspired Rouse), juxtapose the traditional Latin text with other writings. But whether with additional texts or not, these works all come from a place of mourning, in remembrance of losses due to war, other human cruelty, or natural occurrence.

Beck explains his motivation for his REQUIEM:

“One sometimes reaches a point as a composer when the music one imagines suggests a larger form, something of greater artistic consequence. Taking my cue more from earlier composers, as my piece unfolded, I was also conscious of the sacred choral music of Arvo Pärt and Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir, a twentieth-century choral masterpiece. These two composers somehow found modern musical languages that were purposefully subdued, yet ever powerful and moving in their seeming restraint. In light of all of this history, I found the path to my own Requiem. It is without dedication, but is of its time.”

Jeremy Beck: Requiem

05 Jeremy Beck: Requiem: Quid sum miser — Rex tremendae

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