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versity Press titled Keynotes, which reimagines the
canons of Western music for the twenty-first century.
These publications, whose subjects range at this writ-
ing from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring to major
symphonic and operatic works, find their readership
in performers, advanced undergraduate students, as
well as scholars and critics.
Author Jennifer Walker writes of the monumen- Add Your Voice to
tal Berlioz Requiem in a concise, accessible format
in direct contrast to the massiveness of the work it- America’s History!
self. Having sung this work as an undergraduate, its
uniqueness in the Requiem genre has stayed with me
long after the final chords (and undergraduate edu-
cation) have ended.
The book is divided into five chapters, which give
a history of the work, its reception from first perfor-
mance through the nineteenth century, the Requiem’s
aesthetics, experiencing the work, Berlioz’s compo-
sition of the work, and rehearsing the Requiem. The
author walks readers through the entire composi-
tion, especially the composer’s orchestration of the
text (with excerpts from the full score), including his
treatment of the sacred text. In the midst of the huge
Tuba mirum and Rex tremendae, his reworking of the JOIN SING DEMOCRACY 250
Latin texts are calibrated carefully to highlight the
most sublime language of the Mass for the dead, thus TO HONOR AMERICA’S
enabling Berlioz’s most sublime moments to be un- 250TH BIRTHDAY AND HELP
derstood as such (p. 75).
The reflections of his musical contemporaries was RENEW OUR DEMOCRACY
quite mixed. Camille Saint-Saens wrote, after hear-
ing the Requiem in 1852, “In the Tuba mirum, I had the Create a performance in your
impression that every little column on the church’s
pillars became a pipe and the church itself became community between March 1,
an immense organ” (p. 77). Walker also relates the 2026, and December 31, 2026,
challenges of selecting spaces, especially sacred spac- and your choir will receive FREE
es, for the work’s massive forces. The book concludes
with additional sources for reading and listening. printed sheet music of our two
Readers who are well acquainted with the Requiem, new choral compositions, “US”
as well as those learning of the work for the first time,
will find excellent information in this publication. and “Redeem the Dream”

st
Gregory M. Pysh Apply by October 31 2025 at
Van Wert, Ohio www.SingDemocracy250.org

to join the All America Program

CHORAL JOURNAL September 2025 Volume 66 Number 2 71