A Human Requiem

Johannes Brahms was in his early thirties when his mother died in February 1865. A large choral work he had been circling for years came together in the eighteen months that followed. Robert Schumann, his mentor and champion, had died nine years earlier, and many people hear him in this music too.

A requiem is traditionally a Latin mass for the dead that asks God for mercy on their souls. Brahms didn’t write one of those. He went to Martin Luther’s German Bible and chose the texts himself, from the Psalms, the prophets, the Gospels, the letters of the apostles, and the Apocrypha. There is no Day of Judgment in it and no prayer for the departed. He told Karl Reinthaler, who conducted the premiere, that he would gladly drop the word “German” from the title and call it a human requiem instead.

This is music for the people still here. It opens with “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” and closes with “Blessed are the dead.” In between, Brahms moves from grief to patience, from fear of how short a life is to something close to peace.

The fifth movement came last. Brahms added it after the 1868 premiere at Bremen Cathedral, and the complete work was first heard in Leipzig in 1869. A soprano sings, “You now have sorrow, but I will see you again,” and the chorus answers with the line that ties the piece to his mother: “I will comfort you, as one whom his mother comforts.” Today that chorus is sung by the singers of Kinnara.

We chose this piece for All Saints’ Day, when the church remembers the people it has lost. Kinnara last sang it in 2014 in New Jersey, also alongside friends. Coming back to it in our twentieth year, with the Glenn Memorial Chancel Choir that shares so many of our singers, means a great deal to us.

If someone is on your mind today, we hope this music gives you room to sit with them.

  • Chorus

    Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
    They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
    They go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and come again with joy, bringing their sheaves with them.

    Matthew 5:4; Psalm 126:5–6

  • Chorus

    For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away.

    Be patient, therefore, dear brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and is patient with it, until he receives the early and the late rain. So be patient.
    For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away.

    But the word of the Lord endures forever.
    The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall find joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

    1 Peter 1:24; James 5:7; 1 Peter 1:25; Isaiah 35:10

  • John Arnold, baritone; Chorus

    Lord, teach me that I must have an end, that my life has a limit, and that I must pass from here.
    See, my days are a handbreadth before you, and my life is as nothing before you.
    Ah, how utterly nothing are all people, who live so sure of themselves.
    They walk about like a shadow and fill their days with useless worry; they gather and do not know who will receive it.
    Now, Lord, where shall I find comfort? My hope is in you.
    The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.

    Psalm 39:4–7; Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

  • Chorus

    How lovely are your dwellings, O Lord of hosts.
    My soul longs and yearns for the courts of the Lord; my body and soul rejoice in the living God.
    Blessed are they who dwell in your house; they praise you evermore.

    Psalm 84:1–2, 4

  • Carrie Anne Wilson, soprano; Kinnara and Glenn Memorial Staff Singers, Chorus

    You now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you.
    Look at me: for a little while I have had toil and labor, and I have found great comfort.
    I will comfort you, as one whom his mother comforts.

    John 16:22; Sirach 51:27; Isaiah 66:13

  • Luke MacMillan, baritone; Chorus

    For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one to come.
    Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, suddenly, in a moment, at the last trumpet.
    For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
    Then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory?
    Lord, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

    Hebrews 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:51–52, 54–55; Revelation 4:11

  • Chorus

    Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow after them.

    Revelation 14:13

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