Free, donations to benefit Friends of Night People charitable organization that provides services to the poor, homeless and destitute in Buffalo.

The Westminster Choir and Holy Trinity’s Chancel Choir present the Duruflé Requiem, in memory of members of our community whose death has not been memorialized.
As a companion to the service, Westminster will collect hygiene products for distribution by the Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers. Drop off items before or after worship on November 5. Needed items include: underwear, pads/tampons, soap, body wash wipes, socks, hair ties, combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and mouthwash.

Maurice Gustave Duruflé (1902-1986)

Maurice Duruflé was a French composer, organist, and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. His musical language can be viewed as a synthesis of the impressionist tradition of Debussy and Ravel and the modal, Gregorian-inspired style of Fauré. Although his best-known work is the Requiem, his distinctive and powerful organ music continues the French tradition of organ-playing and composition. Duruflé was highly critical of his own compositions. He published only a handful of works and often continued to edit and change pieces after publication. The result of this perfectionism is that his music, especially his organ music, tends to be well polished, and is still frequently performed in concerts by organists around the world.

Maurice Duruflé’s most famous piece is his beautiful Requiem that he completed in 1947. Eventually, per his self-criticism, he wrote three versions of the score, and for flexibility in the orchestral version, he indicated that a choir could sing the solos.

His program notes, in part, read:

“This Requiem is not an ethereal work which sings of detachment from earthly worries. It reflects, in the immutable form of the Christian prayer, the agony of man faced with the mystery of his ultimate end. It is often dramatic, or filled with resignation, or hope or terror, just as the words of the Scripture themselves, which are used in the liturgy. It tends to translate human feelings before their terrifying, unexplainable of consoling destiny. In Paradisum [marks] the ultimate answer of Faith to all the questions by the flight of the soul to Paradise.”
A special thanks to the event patron, Greater Buffalo Friends of Music, Inc., who helped to make this service possible.