About the Piece

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Written for and premiered by the Denver Pro Chorale under the direction of Dr. Michael J. Kornelsen. Dedicated to Cherise Leiter and the Denver Pro Chorale. Premiered on April 17th, 2015 at the Church of the Ascension in Denver, CO.

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The Story

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After a successful premiere of my piece, "Sanctus" by the Denver Pro Chorale, Dr. Kornelson made a joke: "So when are we going to perform your entire Requiem?" This set me off over the next 8 months, furiously writing the largest and most complex work I had ever crafted at that time, "Requiem."

 

The "Kyrie" is the last movement of the first section of my Requiem, titled "The People." After the mourning of the perished in the very first movement of the work, this second movement is a celebration of their lives. Deciding to stick with a very familiar tradition, my "Kyrie" is a fugue, particularly a double fugue (although close inspection will reveal that it's a very twenty-first century version). In an A - B - A+B form, this work is lively and full of mixed meter. At the very end of the work, an "Amen" is added. Here, three melodies from my three favorite "Kyrie" are quoted one at a time, and then all together at once in a surprisingly coherent tag of polyphony.

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Listen:

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See the Score:

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Text:

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Latin

Catholic Mass (From the "Dies Irae" hymn)

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Kyrie eleison,

Christe eleison,

Kyrie eleison.

Amen.

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Order the Music: