Choral Arts NW: Fauré Requiem

Fauré, a French organist and composer who achieved fame at the end of the 19th century, first composed the Requiem in 1887. It is one of his few long works, and also one of his few religious works. The religious status of the Requiem is made strange by the fact that Fauré did not believe in God, despite being trained as a church organist and working as one for the L'église de la Madeleine (the Church of Madeleine). But from this godless man came the most God-filled music imaginable.

I’m an atheist, but I do believe in the God in Fauré’s Requiem. I have never felt Him present is a megachurch, but I have felt Him at home in each of this work’s seven, utterly beautiful movements.