Requiem

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This Requiem Mass was composed between January 6 and May 18, 2013, meaning that this monumental work was completed in less than five months. It consists of twelve movements and follows the traditional liturgical text of the Requiem Mass, as used by composers such as Mozart and Verdi.

The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 F horns, 4 B-flat trumpets, 3 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, tubular bells, gongs, cymbals, triangle, bass drum, snare drum, piano, mixed choir, soprano soloist, tenor soloist, and strings. The Requiem has a duration of over 80 minutes.

The composer employs a wide range of techniques and musical elements: Baroque counterpoint, Neoclassical balance, Romantic pathos, and 20th-century languages and expressions. For this reason, the work can be described as both eclectic and, to some extent, ecumenical. Influences from Johann Sebastian Bach, Giuseppe Verdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Dmitri Shostakovich can be traced throughout the composition.

There are two significant musical quotations in the work. In the Sanctus (Hosanna in excelsis), the quotation is the opening sequence of chords from the First Book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The second is the March from Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary by Henry Purcell, widely recognized by the public due to its use in Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange.

More than mere quotations, these references are deeply integrated into the structure of the work. In the central section of the third movement, the composer also incorporates the medieval anthem Dies Iræ. Far from undermining the originality of the composition, these musical elements and influences give the work a distinctive and unique character. The tonal language, accessible and pleasing to the ear, immediately creates an emotional connection with the audience.

Thematic material introduced in the Introitus reappears in the Lacrimosa, and both are echoed again in the final movement, Lux Æterna. These three movements form the backbone of the Requiem. Lacrimosa and Lux Æterna both conclude with a G major chord, gently emerging after a sequence of notes played by the piano—notes that unmistakably recall a Bach prelude the composer played in his childhood.

“At the threshold of audition,” the composer explains, “that G major chord fades away just as life fades away: a sound that vanishes from our hands, just like the soul slips away from the body at the moment of death… and we do not know whether this is the end or the beginning. That is the mystery of life and death.”

The piano plays a very important role in this Requiem. While the piano part is not particularly difficult, it creates a texture and atmosphere that would be impossible to achieve with other instruments. A piano part in a Requiem Mass is highly unusual. Perhaps the only precedent is Requiem for My Friend by the Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner, although it should be noted that the piano’s role in that work is marginal.

The massive orchestral and choral forces employed by Venus Rey Jr. make this Requiem a work without precedent in the Mexican symphonic repertoire. Requiem: Music for Peace is destined to become not only the Mexican Requiem, but also the Latin American Requiem par excellence.

The composer has received support from the Mexican Congress, the National Council for Culture and the Arts, the Government of the State of Puebla, and the Puebla Council for Culture and the Arts.