In the spring of 2021,
the Claremont Presbyterian Church Worship Commission was considering what we might plan for worship as we looked toward beginning to worship in person after more than twelve months. We felt that it couldn’t be simply going back to what we had done before. It needed to inspire, challenge, and equip us to be part of the healing and transformation of our community as we entered the post-pandemic future. What resources do we have in our tradition that can be repurposed to help us face what is ahead?
That’s when the idea of a commissioning a new Requiem came in. In its most ancient form, a Requiem was simply a mass for the dead. Then in the Middle Ages, certain chants and other music were added. Then, starting in the 1600s, noted composers began to write more complex choral and orchestral music in the Requiem form: Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, and Faure. The Requiem form began to transcend its roots in church liturgy to become a means by which composers could reflect on grief, loss, and hope and enable their audiences to do so as well. In the twentieth century, there were several requiems written in the wake of World War 1. During WW2, a group of imprisoned Jewish musicians at Terizienstad Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia performed Verdi’s Requiem as a lament and a protest against the genocide they witnessed daily. And in 1961, British composer Benjamin Britten produced The War Requiem for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, which had been ruined by German bombs during the Blitz.
Could a new Requiem help our community heal and move forward? Our Director of Music, Geri DeMasi, had composed some smaller works for us in the past. Was he up for the challenge? He agreed with enthusiasm and inspiration. Working through the spring, he had completed the work by mid summer, hoping to begin rehearsals in the fall. The Delta surge in late summer dashed those hopes. As infection rates dropped in October, however, the choir began to work. Pioneering the “hybrid rehearsal” method, our choir met in person and remotely to begin learning the music--only to be interrupted again by the Omicron surge in January. Finally, their work came to fruition with the premier of the Requiem on Palm Sunday, 2022. The performance included singers from the wider community, readings from the archives of the local paper which followed the timeline of COVID-19 in Claremont, and personal stories from Claremont residents sharing their own experiences.
We hope the Pandemic Requiem is a continuation of employing the Requiem form for transformation, healing, and hope.
