Death Show Detritus—Be Careful the Songs You Sing

Some more death-related bits I won’t be doing Friday:

Tupac Shakur was a gangsta rapper. He was gunned down.

Elliott Smith was an indie songwriter who wrote emotionally raw, achingly honest songs. His heart was wrenched.

The Requiem Mass is the Catholic funeral mass or mass for the dead. It’s basically the regular Latin mass with the upbeat parts taken out (…hold for laughs) and some funereal passages added. Lots of composers have set the Requiem. Mozart famously died while writing his. Verdi made a very dramatic, almost opera-like version.

But my favorite is Gabriel Fauré's. An understated craftsman, Fauré wrote mostly songs and chamber music eschewing orchestral bombast for more intimate forms. He eventually completed a full symphonic version of the Requiem, but it’s hardly Gothic. At only a little more than 30 minutes, there’s room for a brief homily and communion and you're still out in less than an hour—that’s how Catholic’s judge a Mass. The music does get loud in spots and it’s suitable to grieve to but it avoids both fire and brimstone and overwrought sentimentality for a more elegant, refined sense of loss. It’s a musical vision of death as merely coming to rest.

Fauré died at nearly 80 of pneumonia. I suppose that fits the premise: nothing violent or sudden, just a charming, well-liked old man catching a bit of a draft.

Dona eis requiem.