John Rutter was born in London.  He began his musical training as a chorister at Highgate School. He then attended Clare College, Cambridge. His first teaching position was at the University of Southampton. He then returned to Clare College were he became director of music in 1975.  In 1979 he left that position in order to devote himself to composition and subsequently to found the Cambridge Singers, a professional choir that has made many recordings of his own compositions and other European choral works.

 

Rutter’s output as a composer has been mainly choral music.  His works have become extremely popular in the UK and the USA but are not well known elsewhere, probably owing to the preponderance of English texts in his compositions.  His style is rooted in the British choral tradition as exemplified by such composers as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Howells, Tippett and Britten. There are also strong influences from 19^th and 20^th century French composers like Duruflé, Fauré and Saint-Saens.

 

Other Rutter works that have gained wide popularity in addition to his Requiem are a Gloria (1974), a Magnificat (1990) and a large number of Christmas pieces. Rutter’s work as an editor for Oxford University Press (with Sir David Willcocks) includes volumes two, three and four of Carols for Choirs (1970, 1978 and 1980). He also published a well-respected performing edition of the 1893 version of the Fauré Requiem. Rutter has also written successfully for organ.  His early work, Toccata in Seven (1974), written in 7/8 time, brought him to the forefront of English composers of his generation.  It was commissioned for an organ album of new works by Oxford University Press. His name was included in this volume alongside such luminaries of English church music as William Harris and Herbert Sumison.

 

Rutter’s Requiem was written in 1985.  The premiere of the entire work took place on 13 October 1985 at Lovers’ Lane United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas.  Movements 1, 2, 4 and 7 were first performed at Fremont Presbyterian Church, Sacramento, California on 14 March 1985.  Both performances were conducted by the composer.  The sixth movement, The Lord is My Shepherd, was originally written in 1976 as a separate anthem.  The first recording of the Requiem in the full orchestra version was made in 1986 by the Cambridge Singers and City of London Sinfonia, conducted by the composer. The first recording of the version with small chamber ensemble was made in 2002 by the choir of Clare College, Cambridge and members of the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Timothy Brown.

 

Following the practice of Brahms and Fauré, Rutter does not use a complete text of the Roman Catholic Missa pro defunctis but instead selected various texts, some from the Requiem Mass, some from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.  The seven sections of the work form an arch-like meditation on the themes of life and death.  The first and last movements are prayers to God on behalf of all humanity. The second and sixth are psalms. The third and fifth are personal prayers to Jesus Christ. The Sanctus, which the composer describes as “celebratory and affirmative,” is the center and is an affirmation of divine glory, accompanied by bells as it is in the Roman Mass.

 

The compositional style of Rutter’s Requiem is best described as eclectic.  His frequent use of chords with mixed tonalities poses an intonation challenge for the chorus.  He also frequently suspends the orchestral accompaniment, allowing the choral writing to “bloom” but also challenging the singers to stay in tune with the orchestra when the accompaniment returns.  The melody of the “Requiem aeternam” section in the first movement reappears in the final movement. Another device used often in the work is canon (strict imitation of the melody from one voice part in a subsequent one).  This can be heard in the “Kyrie” section of the first movement, in the “Dona eis, Domine” of the third movement, and especially in the “Sanctus” fourth movement.

 

Rutter describes his composition in the 1997 liner notes to a recording by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta directed by Stephen Layton: “In style and scale, Requiem owes more to Fauré and Duruflé than to Berlioz, Verdi or Britten.  It is intimate rather than grand, contemplative and lyric rather than dramatic, consolatory rather than grim, approachable rather than exclusive.  I suppose that some will find the sense of comfort and consolation in it facile, but it was what I meant at the time I wrote it, in the shadow of a bereavement of my own.”

 

Rutter’s bereavement was the death of his father.  His choice of texts were guided by a personal motive. He considered the work to be in language “...[my] father might have enjoyed listening to.”

 

The orchestration to Requiem exists in two versions, one for medium-sized orchestra and the other for organ and six instruments. The two versions were written concurrently so that the work would be easily performable in either a concert hall or a church where space, budget or an actual memorial service might be a consideration. We use the orchestral version in our performance this afternoon.

 

Concerning Rutter’s own view of his music and his critics he writes, “…I found out a long time ago that if a composer’s music starts to reach too many people, it pretty soon gets attacked by those who would prefer the non-specialist public to be kept at arm’s length.  I happen not to believe in erecting needless barriers between composer and listener: given the choice between critical approbation and a chance of touching the hearts of people outside the limited circle of contemporary music aficionados, I know which I prefer.  I am only sorry that we live in a critical climate where there has to be this choice.”