Faure’s Requiemembodies a very different feeling than many requiems by other composers. Most profoundly, the tone is more one of exaltation than fear. There is a sense of celebration of life as opposed to a fear of death. A good contrast would be to compare Faure’s Requiem with Mozart’s Requiem. With the use of thick orchestration and driving melodies Mozart created an urgent and, at times, a painful and agonizing feeling. Faure’s Requiem is lighter and more understated. We can infer a lot about his ideas on religion from this piece. At this period the notorious Pope Pius X released an edict stating that church musicians and clergy needed to remove from their repertoire all music of secular and theatrical origins. Faure, on the other hand, felt that the main problem with the direction of religious music in those days was that once the church had abandoned its authentic repertoire of Gregorian chants and turned to music by named composers, the so-called problem of musical style was not really a problem at all. He believed that religious music by named composers was the ultimate expression of religious passion and piety. In a reply to the pope Faure stated:

“The edict you mention will do nothing to change established habits, at least not in the churches of Paris. Firstly because, with the best will and the worst taste in the world, the clergy is convinced it was doing the right thing even before this edit was published. And secondly because there’s an unconscious understanding between the congregation and the clergy which leads them to see everything as being just as it should be. And also because it’s really rather difficult to demarcate between what is a truly religious style and what isn’t: it’s purely a matter of personal judgment. Gounod’s religious faith is quite different from Franck’s or Bach’s. Gounod is all heart and Franck is all spirit. Take the case of Saint Teresa of Avila: her faith is expressed in words whose ardor and passion sometimes spill over into licentiousness. But she was still a saint and you would not dream of banning her from the Church.”

This sentiment is can be seen very clearly in the writing of his religious works. Many people were surprised to find his religious writings more full of tenderness than terror, and they claimed that his Requiem in particular was inappropriate for the church.

Faure’s Requiem is a piece of extraordinarily beautiful musical sentiment. The delicate melodies and warm, dark orchestration create a rich and distinctly pious effect. With the greatest use of simplicity, Faure wrote a work that is of the most humanistic and tender nature. Breaking from his contemporaries, he focused on a celebration of life, as

opposed to a fear of death. Disregarding the usually dramatic and sometimes over the top nature of religious music, Faure was a pioneer in musical form and stylistic influence.

Faure was a doubter, and the resulting mixture of pessimism and resignation set him apart form the despair of the Romantics. Perhaps this religious doubt led him to the conclusion that the only true religious sentiment was that of a humanistic view. Perhaps he felt that the supplication and pomp of the Romantics was, in fact, counter to those sentiments that the Church truly inspired. Whatever the truth of these arguments, it is undeniable that this Mass was not appropriate for and, probably, was never intended to be used as a standard liturgical piece. With its omissions (the benedictus), and its revolutionary orchestration and use of color, the Requiem is of a supremely individual and personal nature. Faure also did not differentiate between divine love and human love. In his view, finite man can come no closer to the infinite than when satisfied in the human sphere. Faure was asked by a reporter once about the opinion of many in those times that his Requiem was more pagan than it was religious. Faure responded by saying:

“But Pagan doesn’t necessarily mean irreligious! In any case I can’t deny, pagan antiquity has always held an enormous attraction for me”