"Yoel L. Arbeitman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Without deciding who was atheist and who agnostic and who a non-traditional
>believer and every other nuance, might one not think of Verdi and Brahms
>in their resp. requiems?

Concerning Brahms at least, it seems well established that he wrote the
Deutsches Requiem following selected Lutheran texts faithfully, dispensing
with the traditional liturgical choices of requiem texts.  In particular,
Brahms went out of his way to omit any references to Jesus or the Christ,
focusing more on the human aspects of solace, comfort and yearning for
final rest and restoration.

The initial inspiration for the Requiem was evidently the death of his
mother (though that sort of thing is not unusual for requiem composers),
but in content and spirit the work hews closely to Brahms's Protestantism.

There have also been a number of composers, Schubert most notably among
them, who tended to omit significant passages of the Credo from settings
of the Mass due to their own "issues" with the text.  I don't find any
of this necessarily indicating any degree of agnosticism or non-traditional
belief - merely variations in their religious outlooks.

 - seb