William Copper:

>I love much choral music, and have sung much, though never Britten's War
>Requiem, and I definitely focus on 20th century music -- but I have never
>found what exactly causes so many people to pick this piece above so many
>others as great or exemplary.  Can someone be specific about a movement or
>section that could get me hooked?

Well, the immediate hits to me were the first song, "What passing bells"
(probably the snare drum got to me), the Dies Irae (a brilliant evocation
of the traditional chant without ever quoting it), the Lacrimosa (gorgeous
melody, in canon yet!), "One ever hangs where shelled roads part" (if
you're not moved by that, check your pulse), the "Quam olim Abrahae" fugue
and the related song ("So Abram rose"), especially if you know the earlier
Canticle II on which both are based, the brilliant chatter of the "Pleni
sunt coeli," and the hypnotic Benedictus.  These were more than enough to
hook me.  The rest filled in rather quickly.

Steve Schwartz