Composer's Corner: Imbrie's Conclusion
John H. Imbrie (October 23, 1962 - August 15, 1981)
While two text sources are referenced in the title of the Requiem’s sixth and final movement, (Death be Not Proud and Conclusion), the culminating statement of Imbrie's massively ambitious work is presented in three clearly delineated sections likely evident to even casual listeners.
The movement commences with, in the composer’s words “an extended, agitated orchestral introduction, needed to generate the energy for the setting of John Donne’s sonnet.” By now, the attentive reader would rightly expect Donne’s iconic poem to spotlight the soprano, yet Imbrie turns the tables by assigning the choir to intone—singing in English for the first time—this timeless declaration of faith’s power to overcome mortality (to my surprise, this journey also taught me that Donne, too was a minister).
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. ”
The touching, artless simplicity of this hopeful human utterance is underscored by Imbrie’s equally simple choral treatment. This is expressed through unison melody in octaves in which entire choir, qua everyman, participates, ultimately building to the furious denunciation, "Death thou shalt die". In perhaps more ordinary works, the formidable percussion entrance greeting Donne's final poetic declaration would mark the unambiguous climax, but Imbrie has more in store.
With the soloist still waiting in the wings, the movement seamlessly progresses to the “Conclusion,” (cannily named since the text is actually drawn from three Latin Requiem sections Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Lux Aeterna). Answering two, full-voiced choral exclamations "Hosanna", the soprano, singing for the first time in Latin, enters like a rocket on the word “Benedictus”, beginning a soaring melisma* which reaches the upper limit of the coloratura range (high E!) in what proves to be the work's true, heart-wrenching emotional high point. With the echo of this shattering moment still ringing in the ear, the movement proceeds to its quick denouement, a conclusion very much reminiscent of the work’s opening Kyrie, a distant memory of the opening, in turn imparting a deeply fulfilling sense of closure the topic demands from both musical and literary standpoints.
*A melisma is a commonly used text setting technique used by composers in which multiple notes are assigned to the same syllable.
“Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus in nomine Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata
mundi,
dona eis requiem, et lux perpetua
luceat eis,
cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,
quia pius es.
”
“Hosanna in the highest,
Blessed in the name of God.
Lamb of god that takest away the sins of
the world,
Grant them rest, and let everlasting light
shine on them
with thy Saints for ever.
for thou art merciful”