Gritton: a NEW Requiem

A composer does not write a Requiem without a poignant reason, the catalyst for mine having been the sudden death of my younger sister Lucy in 2016. It took just under a decade before I could summon up the creative strength to put pen to paper but, during those intervening years, it became clear to me that my overriding aim for the work was to bring as much comfort as possible through music to those of us left behind. Nonetheless, the musical style of my Requiem does not shy away from expressing intense feelings of loss, and of being lost.

Requiem was first performed on Friday 1 August 2025 by Voces8, and Voces8 Scholars UK, under the direction of their music director Barnaby Smith. The performance was held in Milton Abbey as part of the Voces8 International Summer School and Festival and subsequently broadcast on the Voces8 streaming platform Live from London. I am most grateful to Barnaby Smith for letting me use the recording of the first performance of my Requiem.

You can follow the score of Requiem HERE. The vocal score can be bought as a pdf download. Here are a few facts about the Requiem:

• a bundle of 10 scores work out at £9.50 per copy;
• the score is 42 sides long,
• a performance lasts just under 20 minutes,
• the scoring is for SATB with quite frequent divisi,
• there is a soprano/treble solo in the central section Pie Jesu and a short bass solo leading into the final section;
• and finally the stage direction at the end instructing the choir to process out in order to effect a fade-away is optional – if this is not possible then ending quietly is perfectly acceptable.

Both performer and listener alike can briefly inhabit the world of the protagonist above, whose journey is determined by the combination of the beautiful texts written by Rev. Luther F. Beecher (A), Minnie Louise Haskins (B) and Desmond Harmsworth (C). As each section unfolds and reaches its own emotive peak, a line from the traditional Requiem Mass encapsulates the mood of the moment. However, the final section is not punctuated by Requiem text since the concept of transfiguration here is better portrayed by open-endedness.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she stands like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: ‘There she is gone.” (A)

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis. (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them.) 

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth and finding the Hand of God trod gladly into the night. And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. (B)

Lux aeterna luceat eis Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum quia pius es. (May eternal light shine on them, O Lord, with Thy saints for ever because Thou art holy.)

I’ll be the rain, I’ll be the willows tossing their myriad hair, and mine the breath will sigh in the reeds and quire in the swaying trees. My hands will be air to hold you, I’ll be calm pools at evening; poppies’ fire, the sun through shaken leaves; all shadow and light; Stars and voices of winds; a mist to fold you; a silence crying out for you in the night. (C)

Lacrimosa dies illa qua resurget ex favilla…(On this day full of tears, when arisen from the ashes…)

Pie Jesu Domine dona eis requiem. Amen. (Gentle Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest. Amen.)

So heart be still: what need our little life our human life to know, if God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife of things both high and low, God hideth His intention. God knows. His will is best. The stretch of years which wind ahead, so dim to our imperfect vision, is clear to God. Our fears are premature; in Him, all time hath full provision. Then rest, until God moves to lift the veil from our impatient eyes, when as the sweeter features of Life’s stern face we hail, fair beyond all surmise God’s thought around His creatures our mind shall fill. (B)

Requiescat in pace, in paradisum deducant te Angeli, chorus Angelorum te suscipiant aeternam habeas requiem. (Let them rest in peace, into Paradise may the Angel lead thee, may the choir of angels receive thee, may thou have eternal rest.)

Yet, just at the moment when someone says “There she’s gone’, there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!” (A)