Sunday Nov. 3, 4:30 pm
Fauré’s Requiem, with Choir and Orchestra
Please join us on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 4:30 pm for our All Souls' service. All Souls' Day is an occasion to remember and give thanks for our loved ones: those who gave us life, encouraged us on life's journey, or nurtured us in faith. This year's service will be a Requiem Eucharist, with the music of Gabriel Fauré (with choir and orchestra). Before the service (from 4:10 to 4:30 pm), you are welcome to light a candle at the front of the church in remembrance of a loved one.
During the service, names of loved ones will be read aloud and offered in prayer. You can submit names of your loved ones for All Souls:
· Online- click here
· At the Church - on the paper form on the Welcome Hub
· Via phone - 416-483-6664
All submissions must be received no later than Thursday, October 31st.
About the Music
Director of Music Daniel Webb
The silliest fact I have found about La Madeleine, the magnificent Neo-classical church just north of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, is that the female singers the church reluctantly allowed to sing at Chopin’s funeral in 1849 had to be obscured behind a black velvet curtain. Forty years later, amid such preposterous dogmatism, it is perhaps surprising to find the composer Gabriel Fauré employed at the same church and giving the premiere of his Requiem at the funeral of a noted architect. I confess admiration for Fauré the man – he of the complex, fragile faith, irreverent at worst (he was once dismissed from a position for arriving at church still in his evening dress from the night before) and, as Camille Saint-Saëns back-handedly put it, “a first-class organist when he wanted to be” – and I have him down as the patron saint of fallible church musicians.
Fauré’s unconventional and somewhat non-conformist attitude may not have been a perfect fit at La Madeleine but we have it to thank for the overall feel and architecture of his Requiem in D minor, Op.48. The selection of texts emphasises aspects of gentleness and peace, and largely avoids the melodrama and terror in parts of the Requiem liturgy. As we turn to a performance of it for All Soul’s on the afternoon of Sunday November 3, a day before the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s death, it is gratifying to re-discover the things about Fauré’s Requiem that make it so suitable for such a service. It is on a small scale, its utterances subtle, touching and affecting. Its theology is that of comfort and solace rather than fear and vengeance - "a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest", as Fauré described it. Among the exceedingly convenient aspects of the piece is that it can be performed with all manner of instrumental support, from organ only to full symphony orchestra. We will be using something close to the original chamber orchestra scoring, with organ joined by mainly lower strings plus two horns, a trumpet and a harp – a version that fits our space and our budget but which also emphasises the richness and charm of Fauré’s music. I might add that we will be using the female soprano and alto voices that the composer preferred for this piece but which his own church found to be ungodly. As you experience his sublime music, interspersed with prayer, ceremony and the names of our beloved departed read aloud, I hope that you will find comfort in the remembrance of those you love but see no more.
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