Doris Howe wrote:

>Margaret Mikulska wrote:
>>And that's really curious, because Verdi was an atheist.
>
>So, I'm told was Vaughan Williams, who set many hymns to music.

Not only that, he was even musical editor of a hymnbook (The English
Hymnal)!  And he wrote some lovely settings of sacred words, such as the
Five Mystical Songs and the Mass in G minor.  I conclude that he may not
have been a believer himself, but had enough imagination to know what it
might feel like if you were.  Same goes for Verdi too.

Saint-Saens Requiem is for me more deeply felt than much of his music,
probably because it was written in memory of one of his own children.
To my surprise, I enjoyed singing it (at an All Souls' Day service in
London a few years ago), but I don't find it so engaging to listen to.

No one's mentioned Cherubini's requiem yet.  I sang this with the Bath
Camerata a few years ago and liked it.  No soloists and hard work for
the choir, especially in a huge fugue for 'Quam olim Abrahae' which gets
repeated almost immediately.  The piece sounds a bit hackneyed now, though
I think this was because many of Cherubini's ideas became commonplaces.
It was very popular in its day (am I right in thinking it was performed
at Beethoven's funeral?) but has largely been superseded by other settings.
The opening (adapted by Deffell) turns up as an Anglican chant from time
to time.

Yesterday on BBC R3 I heard part of an unfinished Requiem by Donizetti
which anticipated Verdi's in style.  Pity he didn't complete it.

I don't really know what the difference between a Catholic and Protestant
requiem might be, apart from the source of the text set.  Neither part of
the Church has a monopoly on a dread of final judgement, or expectation of
a blessed afterlife.

Virginia Knight
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Personal homepage: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html