Libera me (Requiem, Op. 48, No. 6)

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.

Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations.

This outstanding transcription was done by Virgil Fox (1912-1980). It can be found in "At the Organ with Virgil Fox," published by H. W. Gray in 1994. It's a must have if you're a Fox-Fan, and can still be found quite easily.

Faure's setting of the "Requiem Messe" began in 1887, and with several "phases and transitions," before the work was "finalized" in 1893. John Rutter's scholarly edition brings it back to the "way it was intended to be performed," and is the version most commonly used.

In the original score, Fauré sets the "Libera me" as a baritone solo, with choir and orchestra. Fox does an exceptionally fine job of making this work, although you'll need to be clever to do it.

I tried to pay homage to his intentions in terms of registration, at least in the first section, but from there forward, I went my own way for the most part, as I just won't play full organ with tremolo! ;-)

The complete text of the work is given in the First Comment, and photos of Fauré and one of Fox at Riverside are attached below.