This week we are honored to welcome a guest blogger:  Tacoma Symphony Chorus alto Claudia Finseth.  Claudia is a gifted freelance writer whose articles are featured periodically in The News Tribune and other publications.  On Friday, April 15, the Tacoma Symphony Chorus will perform Mozart's Requiem at Christ Episcopal Church.  Dr. Geoffrey Boers will conduct the sold-out performance.  Below, Ms. Finseth shares her personal insights into the significance of this work -- directly from the chorus riser.

 -- Andy

Perhaps no music speaks reassurance to the heart like the choral requiem.  On April 15th the Tacoma Symphony Chorus will sing Mozart’s Requiem and several other works of rest and blessing in the aurally beautiful space of Christ Episcopal.

Requiem: literally “extra quiet or rest.”  Written as a liturgy for the dead--made up of an Introit, a Kyrie, an Agnus Dei, a Pie Jesu and so forth--requiems have always provided solace to those still living, as well.  In the 20th Century they gathered even greater meaning as they also came to represent hope for peace in the world.

On the first anniversary of 9/11 the Mozart Requiem was sung around the world in such a gesture.  The “Rolling Requiem” began at exactly 8:46 am--the time the first plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York one year earlier.  As that time circled the world, Mozart’s Requiem reverberated in the round across the earth.

I have two CDs of the Mozart Requiem, one which I bought in Salzburg Cathedral, a lovely small cathedral not far from the house in which Mozart was born.  We were there at Christmas, visiting our daughter in college, and the sound of Mozart’s music in live performance was in every church and concert hall and even on street corners throughout the Old City.  It was magical.

The writing of his requiem will forever be associated with Mozart’s early death at age 35 of rheumatic fever.  We even know the last stanzas he penned as he lay on his death bed.  They are in the midst of the heart-rending Lacrimosa movement, “That day of tears and mourning . . . .”  Franz Xaver Sussmayr, a fellow-musician to whom Mozart explained his musical themes as he lay dying, finished that movement and others.

Each movement in the Requiem has its own beauty and power, and it is hard to pick one as a favorite.  I love the Rex Tremendae, “King of tremendous majesty, who freely saves . . . .” It is truly a song of tremendous majesty (and the altos have a chance to sing the lead.)  But dearest to my heart is the musical theme that bookends the Requiem in both the Introitus and Communio, “Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.”  Somehow in that piece Mozart achieves a musical blossoming of light.  Listen for it.

The Tacoma Symphony Chorus last sang the Mozart Requiem in 2002.  It is time to sing it again.  This year is the tenth anniversary of Dr. Geoffrey Boers directing us.  He has picked some exquisite music to round out this program.  The chorus will process singing the warm verses of The Kontakion by Rupert Lang from the Eastern Orthodox Memorial Liturgy.  Kontakion refers to the stick that holds a rolled scroll, perhaps the scroll of each life, the story of each life.  Then there is the remarkable In Paradisium, written by 21 year old music major Eric Sayre of St. Olaf College on the death of his father.  A combination of Jewish and Christian memorial words from Sayre's own mixed heritage, it is so very tender with it’s “May the angels lead you into paradise . . . .”

Christ Episcopal Church, with its cathedral acoustics and spare decoration, will be the ideal place to let this lovely music fill your soul and speak to your heart.  In your busy and hectic life let it be a moment when you surround yourself with music that can bring you rest and peace.  “Give rest unto your servants with your saints, O God, give rest, give rest.” 

Claudia Finseth

Alto