Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

The Requiem was George Lloyd’s final work. The score is inscribed, “Written in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales,” and the work is also a conscious leave-taking on the part of the composer. It is scored for small chorus, counter-tenor soloist and organ. The simple scale of the forces reflects Lloyd’s realization that he might not be able to complete a large orchestral score in the time he had remaining to him. The pencil score was started in the autumn of 1997 and was completed on January 23, 1998. The final proofing of the score was completed in early May 1998. George Lloyd died on July 3 of that year. The work was premiered at St. Barnabas Church, Oxford as part of the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival in Spring 2000. Lloyd used the standard Requiem text in Latin. The libera me is the usual end, but it is not considered essential, so in typical fashion, Lloyd preferred to end the work on a hopeful note, so finished with the lux aeterna. The work is quiet and reflective in tone, and is the first and only one of Lloyd’s works written for the counter-tenor voice, which lends the work a timeless quality and a particularly spiritual dimension. Although Lloyd was known for his ebullient and energetic climaxes, this work by contrast is generally quiet in tone. It is Italian in style, and moves between modal and romantic idioms and in typical George Lloyd fashion, it is unabashedly beautiful. Psalm 130 was written in 1995 for a cappella voices, and was commissioned by Mr. John D. Owens. How obvious it is in this wonderful music that George Lloyd adored singers and the expressive power of the human voice.

"Some 15 years ago," says George Lloyd, "I wanted to write a Te Deum by way of saying thank you, but parts of the text (the bits about cherubim and seraphim) I felt unable to comprehend, so I wrote a violin concerto instead. A pity, because although I no longer attend any church I am very much a believer. In 1990 I conducted by Twelfth Symphony for a Three Choirs Festival concert at Worcester; as I waited, in the garden of the East End, for my turn, the choir was singing some Delius. The sounds seemed to float from nowhere and blended with a most perfect summer evening; it was a magical moment and I felt that I must try some time to write a choral work with religious overtones. After much searching I fell back on the text of the Mass. I enjoy setting Latin; it is useful for a composer not only because of the fine sounds but because the words can be repeated a dozen times without anyone noticing. There were still a few difficulties for me but I managed to square these with my own beliefs and I called the result A Symphonic Mass to denote that it is non-liturgical."