#classical #music
The Requiems that I presented in Parts I-III (Mozart, Brahms and Verdi) all followed the example of a pre-verbal baby: now he sleeps - now he's awake - now he's screaming - now he's laughing - he's angry - crying - smiling - he's finally asleep again. The music would lurch back and forth between high and low, soft and loud, fast and slow, dissonant and consonant. What's the message? What's it trying to say? Well, exactly the same as that baby: "Wake up! Pay attention to me!"Now comes Gabriel Fauré with a different attitude: "Calm down. What are you trying to do? Wake up the dead? Why wouldn't you let them have their eternal rest?"
If Mozart, Brahms and Verdi are like roller coaster rides, the Fauré is like a walk through a high altitude valley: not much is changing along the way, the sky is azure, the air is crisp, the mountain vistas are breathtaking.
It is very popular. A lot of people including myself love it despite its strong soporific tendencies.