1. Requiem et Kyrie
2. Dies irae
3. Offertorium (Domine Jesu et Hostias)
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei
Requiem is written for the traditional Latin text. It exists in two versions: for mixed choir and strings, as well as for mixed choir and organ. As in my other compositions in the recent years, I continue here the development of a new meta-language that includes stylistic elements from various periods: Gregorian Chant and early polyphony, Baroque figures, operatic melodies of the 19th century, modernistic innovations of the 20th century... In contrast to collage techniques and poly-stylistics (L. Berio, M. Kagel, A. Schnittke), this meta-language smoothes the contrasts between various styles and incorporates them as much as possible into one discourse, making the transitions from one style to another imperceptible.
I aim at overcoming eclecticism and finding a new unity in a combination of those musical elements that historically never existed next to each other. Placed in an unexpected context, these splinters of old styles and epochs are transformed and affect each other. In the foreground, one sees not the neatness of stylization, but the adaptation of borrowed idioms, a personal "comment" on them. Music that on the surface may remind one of familiar classics - something from Verdi, Brahms or Palestrina, nevertheless reflects the sensibility of our own global and universal time which is aiming at a dialogue of cultures and their interaction.
The work was premiered in 2004 at the festival Contrasts in Lviv, Ukraine, by the chamber choir Gloria and the chamber orchestra Leopolis conducted by Volodymyr Syvokhip.
Alexander Shchetynsky
© 2005 by Alexander Shchetynsky