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Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem is a requiem mass

written in memory of the composer's father, William Lloyd Webber, who died in 1982. Many thought it a surprising turn for such a populist composer as Lloyd Webber to produce a piece of "serious" music, being his first and to date only full-blown classical work. The music mixes Lloyd Webber's melodic and pop-oriented style with more complex, sophisticated and (at times) even austere forms. Lloyd Webber himself called the Requiem "the most personal of all my compositions".

The work is scored for chorus, three soloists (tenor, soprano, treble) and a large orchestra that includes organ, drum kit, and synthesizer. It was written in 1984; its first performance featuring such major names as Lorin Maazel, Plácido Domingo, Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber's wife at the time) and Paul Miles-Kingston. The piece earned a largely negative critical reaction, many citing its lack of true depth and musical unity as examples of the weakness of the work. It is rarely performed today.

The best-known part of the piece, the "Pie Jesu" segment, was a minor "hit" and has been recorded frequently outside of the parent Requiem, including by Sarah Brightman.

The work won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Instrumentation

• tenor, soprano, and treble soloists
• mixed choir (SATB) (performed with boy sopranos and altos at the premiere)
• Woodwinds: 2 flutes (1st doubling alto flute, 2nd doubling piccolo and alto flute), 2 oboes (1st doubling oboe d'amore, 2nd doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (1st doubling E-flat clarinet, 2nd doubling bass clarinet), 2 saxophones (1st doubling soprano and tenor saxophones and alto flute, 2nd doubling alto and baritone saxophones and clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon
• Brass: 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones
• Percussion: timpani & 4 percussionists playing side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, small, medium, large and deep suspended cymbals, tambourine, deep military side drum, small ratchet rattle, glockenspiel, xylophone, gong, large gong, small bell, bells, chimes, bell tree, wood block, congas, maracas, marimba, high rototom, drum kit
• Keyboards: piano doubling celesta, synthesizer (DX7), organ
• Strings: harp, violas, cellos, double basses

• notably absent are violins.

Structure

As is usual, Lloyd Webber did not set the Gradual and Tract texts of the Mass. He divides the Sanctus between two movements, including the Hosanna part with the Benedictus. He does not set the Agnus Dei. He includes the motet Pie Jesu and a text from the burial service, Libera me.

• Introit – Kyrie
• Sequence:
  • Dies irae
  • Recordare
  • Ingemisco
• Offertory – Sanctus: Sanctus
• Sanctus: Hosanna – Benedictus
• Pie Jesu
• Communion – Libera me

Popular culture

• The Pie Jesu from the Requiem by Lloyd Webber combines this text with that of the Agnus Dei from later in the Requiem. It was originally performed by Sarah Brightman, who rerecorded the track for her Classics album in 2001.
• Charlotte Church also recorded this version on her best-selling debut album, Voice of an Angel as did Angelis, a children's choir.
• Moe Koffman had recorded the version on his recently re-issued album Music for the Night with Doug Riley and his orchestra in 1991.
• Swedish pop artist Håkan Hellström has repeatedly been accused of plagiarizing this piece.