FUNEREAL FOR THE FUN OF IT.

Byline: CRAIG SMITH

If Canticum Novum's concerts this weekend seem to have a somewhat funereal cast, it's not your imagination. Kenneth Knight,

the chamber orchestra and chorus's music director, has chosen the repertoire to suit a theme: the observance of the feasts of All Saints'

Day and All Souls' Day, which fall on Sunday, Nov. 1, and Monday,

Nov. 2, in the Christian calendar - the days immediately following

Allhallows' Eve.

The concert in St. Francis Auditorium of the New Mexico Museum of Art begins with English composer Maurice Greene's stately anthem "Lord, Let Me Know Mine End," followed by Bach's cantata God's Time Is the Best Time, written when Johann Sebastian was 22. "Time" here refers to the length of a person's days as determined by God -- the religious-philosophical comfort being that even when a life is cut short, the decision comes from a beneficent deity rather than the shears of the pagan Fates. The original German title puts the emphasis on that assurance even better than does the English translation: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, as in, far better than just the best.

Franz Schubert's "Gesang der Geister uber den Wassern," which sets a Goethe text, is a gorgeously evocative piece for the unusual and richly hued combination of male voices and violas, cellos, and double basses. This version is the fifth setting of the poem Schubert worked on and the only complete one. The others break off in midcomposition.

The title means "Song of the Spirits Over the Waters," and the initial stanza states, "Man's soul is like water: it comes from heaven, it rises to heaven, it goes throughout the earth, always wandering." The final words of the piece are "Soul of Man, you are like the water; Fate of

Man, you are like the wind." The vocal and instrument tone painting

throughout is magnificent.

The anchor piece for the concerts is Faure's op. 48 Requiem -- one of the most beloved of all such works, if we can use such a term about a Mass for the dead. But then, many requiems we hear in concert were intended for secular performance, not for actual use during a church service or memorial.

Famous Requiem concert settings include those by Verdi, Brahms, Berlioz, Dvoryak, and Britten. Liturgical settings include those by Durufle, Mozart -- arguably, though it was left unfinished at his

own death -- John Rutter, and of course Faure. Some incorporate additional texts, such as the Wilfred Owen poems Britten chose or

the text from the Roman Catholic burial-graveside service that Faure used for the "Pie Jesu."

The Faure is a small gem of only about 35 minutes, but it has a convoluted history. The first part he composed, at 32, was a "Libera me" for baritone and organ. At that time he had no plans for a bigger piece. Over the years he added more movements, and various versions of the growing Requiem were rendered for funerals at Paris' Church of the Madeleine in 1888 and 1893. The 1888 version was quite intimate: just a few violas, cellos, and double basses plus timpani, harp, solo violin in one movement, and organ. Some commentators think the violin part may have been played by one of the violists. The 1893 version added more instruments and movements.

Finally, a 1900 orchestration for a big concert at the Trocadero,

urged on by Faure's publisher, was apparently done quickly by Faure's star student, Jean Roger-Ducasse. It added violins, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, and a bigger timpani part to the 1893 version but is full of wrong notes and other errors.

John Rutter's newly edited version that Canticum Novum will be using calls for paired low strings, solo violin, four horns, harp, and organ plus two optional bassoons and trumpets, which Knight has decided to omit. Incidentally, the Bach cantata is also scored for violas plus two flutes, harpsichord, and cello or basso continuo.

Faure made his living in his younger years as an organist and music teacher, but he was not notably religious. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, he wrote the Requiem "for the

pleasure of it." And quotes from his letters to violinist-conductor Eugene YsaOe, who was planning a 1900 concert performance in Belgium, show a cheerful pragmatism. "I shall be delighted, delighted, delighted to hear my Requiem conducted by yourself with your

musicians," Faure confided in an Aug. 4, 1900, letter. "An organ would be necessary because it accompanies the whole way through, but a loud harmonium would do instead.

"As for the number of voices in the choir, that will naturally depend on the size of the hall where you give your concerts. The work lasts about 30 minutes or 35 at most; altogether it is as gentle as I am myself!! and it calls for one quiet bass-baritone, the cantor type, and one soprano."

He emphasized that reference to a "cantor type" a bit later in the letter. "Little Torres was encored at the Trocadero for the piece she had to sing, the 'Pie Jesu.' She has an engagement in Liege for next season, as it happens, and I'm sure you will get her without difficulty. The man who sang the bass part, Vallier, is booked at La Monnaie, but he was execrable -- a real opera singer who did not begin to understand the composure and gravity of his part in this Requiem."

details

Canticum Novum Chamber Orchestra and Chorus

7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31 and 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1

St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave.

$35, students $20 with ID, at