Requiem, Op. 9

• Duruflé composed his Requiem in 1947.¹
• The vocal melodies in Duruflé’s Requiem are adapted from the Gregorian Chant of the Requiem Mass.²
  • Plainsong was very important to Duruflé. He was educated at a choir school in Rouen, and he studied under the organist of the Rouen Cathedral. Plainsong was an integral part of Duruflé’s education and worship practices there. His love of plainsong also leads to a frequent use of modal harmonies in his work, instead of relying solely on conventional major and minor tonal harmony.³
• Like Fauré’s Requiem, Duruflé’s does not set the entire text of the traditional Latin Requiem Mass, but only selections from it. Both Fauré and Duruflé opted for a consoling, gentle perspective in their Requiem settings: for example, both omitted a full setting of the stark “Dies irae” portion of the Mass for the Dead.⁴

Maurice Duruflé on his Requiem⁵

“Completed in 1947, my Requiem is composed throughout upon the Gregorian themes of the Mass for the Dead. Sometimes the text is completely respected, the orchestral part intervening only to support or comment upon it; sometimes I am simply inspired by it, or completely removed from it…”

Maurice Duruflé

“In general, I have sought above all to enter into the characteristic of the Gregorian themes: thus I have striven to reconcile, as far as is possible, Gregorian rhythm as it has been established by the Benedictines of Solesmnes with the exigencies of modern meter.”

Maurice Duruflé

“The organ’s role is merely episodic: it intervenes, not to support the chorus, but solely to underline certain accents or to replace temporarily the all too human sonorities of the orchestra. It represents the idea of peace, of faith and hope.”

Maurice Duruflé

1. Nicholas Kaye, “Duruflé, Maurice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008407.
2.  Barry Creasy, “Requiem – Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986),” choirs.org.uk, accessed February 23, 2021, http://www.choirs.org.uk/prognotes/Durufle%20Requiem.htm. 
3.  Nicholas Kaye, “Duruflé, Maurice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008407.
4.  Barry Creasy, “Requiem – Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986),” choirs.org.uk, accessed February 23, 2021, http://www.choirs.org.uk/prognotes/Durufle%20Requiem.htm. 
5.  Quoted in “In Memoriam: Maurice Duruflé,” Choral Journal 27 no. 9 (April 1, 1987), 17.