University Chorus to present 'Music of Eternal Rest' Sunday

GREENCASTLE -- The DePauw University Chorus will present "Music of Eternal Rest" at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The concert, conducted by Jan Harrington and featuring University organist Carla Edwards, will take place in the Green Center for the Performing Arts, Kresge Auditorium. The program is presented free of admission charge and is open to all.

The concert will explore memorial music from different cultures and religions.

The program features the "Requiem, Op. 9" by Maurice Duruflé in its original version for organ, mezzo-soprano and baritone solo, solo cello, and chorus. In his "Requiem," composed in 1947 in memory of his father, Duruflé uses the liturgical Gregorian themes from the Catholic Missa Defunctorum ("Mass for the dead") as its melodic basis.

Faculty organist Edwards will be the organist for the Duruflé. Student soloists will be mezzo-soprano, Caroline Murphy; tenor Michael Padilla; and cellist Karl Wert.



Opening the concert will be the experimental American composer Charles Ives' setting of "Psalm 90" for chorus, bells and organ. The dramatic and dissonant setting explores the various aspects of the difficulty of life on earth and God's judgment, but ends with a prayer and promise of God's peace and eternal care in a calm setting reminiscent of a New England Protestant hymn.

Also at the concert will be the chanting of a classical Indian memorial Bhajan sung by freshman Vedant Chandra, and a setting of the Jewish Kaddish prayer by Maurice Ravel, sung by freshman soprano Emily Barnash with accompaniment by faculty pianist Keith Teepen.