{"id":1578,"date":"2026-05-25T12:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T10:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newchambersingers.com\/?page_id=1578"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:27:09","slug":"durufle-requiem-7-june-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newchambersingers.com\/en\/durufle-requiem-7-june-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Durufl\u00e9 Requiem: 7 June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To read some notes about the music we will perform, please just scroll down the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access more-detailed public (usually Wikipedia) information about the composers and\/or the music, click the appropriate links in the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choir<\/td>New Chamber Singers<\/strong>
Sopranos<\/strong>: Aline Loiseau, Carlotta Caimi, Emmanuelle Judet, Felicity Howard, Helen Raiswell, Kasey Cohimia, Luisa Boccia, Marcella Mancini
Altos<\/strong>: Alessandra Darin, Andrea Perlis, Carla Carri, Eleni Dimmler, Josephine Neil, Laura Alimonti, Monika Boothby, Tina Alberti
Tenors<\/strong>: Alessio Paoletti, Chris Phillips, Franco Chiarini, Shawn McGuire
Basses<\/strong>: Jim McManus, J\u00f6rg Schaden, Roberto Di Mattei, Thomas Hofer<\/td><\/tr>
Conductor<\/td>Stefano Vasselli (1969 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Soloists<\/td>Soprano: Sarah D’Angelo, Baritone: Sandy McCleery<\/td><\/tr>
Organist<\/td>Efisio Aresu (1997 – )<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Program<\/td>Pr\u00e9lude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain<\/td>Maurice Durufl\u00e9 (1902 – 1986)<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Requiem<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maurice Durufl\u00e9 was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher. He was born in Louviers, Normandy in 1902, and studied piano and organ at Rouen Cathedral Choir School from 1912 to 1918, the choral plainsong tradition of which remaining a strong and lasting influence. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 18, graduating with first prizes in organ, harmony, fugue, piano accompaniment and composition, the latter being taught by Paul Dukas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1927, Louis Vierne nominated him as his assistant at Notre-Dame, and the two remained lifelong friends, Durufl\u00e9 being at Vierne’s side when the latter died at the console of the Notre-Dame organ in 1937. Durufl\u00e9 became titular organist of St-\u00c9tienne-du-Mont<\/a> in Paris in 1929, a position he held for the rest of his life. In 1943 he became Professor of Harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he worked until 1970; among his pupils were the revered organists Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou and Marie-Claire Alain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1941 he began composing what is probably the most famous of his few pieces: the Requiem op. 9, which we perform tonight. It is a setting of the Latin Requiem for baritone, mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, and organ, or orchestra with organ. The thematic material is mostly taken from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant. The work was commissioned by the Vichy regime but not completed until 1947, being first published in 1948 by Durand in the organ version we are singing. Also in 1947, the brilliant organist Marie-Madeleine Chevalier became his assistant at St-\u00c9tienne-du-Mont and they married on 15 September 1953. The couple became a famous and popular organ duo, going on tour together several times throughout the sixties and early seventies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While working on the Requiem, he also composed a poignant tribute to his close friend and fellow organist, Jehan Alain, who had joined the French Army at the outbreak of WWII and had been killed in the German blitzkrieg attack in northern France in June 1940. The piece was called Pr\u00e9lude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain, <\/em>and was published as his Op. 7 in 1942. The piece uses a musical cryptogram derived from Alain’s surname as its main structural theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many composers, Durufl\u00e9 encoded names into notes by mapping letters to the musical scale. For Alain (A-L-A-I-N), he used the french alphabet-based system but assigned H to B flat, and then continuing with letter I = note A, etc. This gives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n