If you’ve never listened to a requiem, I’d start with this one. The melodies are gorgeous, the harmonies lush, and Rutter mixes English with the Latin. Here's what Rutter himself (or at least his website--is there a difference?) had to say about it.

A couple things to listen for:

· The end of Pie Jesu, where the soloist floats the high note;

· The contrast of the kettle drums and harp in the middle of the Agnus Dei, how he has English and Latin words weaving in and out of each other, and how this portion of the requiem builds from the beginning to its peak and then subsides;

· The beautiful oboe in The Lord is My Shepherd.

(Okay, that was three things, not a couple).

Notes about the Rutter Requiem and me! Yeah!

· I sang this with a choir in college. I think this is the one that I had a solo in, and I came in on the wrong note. I can still see the look of scorn on the conductor’s face (ouch);

· For the longest time, I had no title for my book. I was listening to the Rutter Requiem one night in my old attic apartment, Mr. Jones by my side, when it hit me. Not coincidentally, the first part of Rutter’s work is called Requiem Aeternam; I dropped the ‘A’ to make it more interpretable. Not sure when I settled on quoting the mass at the start of each chapter, but finding those quotes every time was just flat out fun;

· A minor character in the book is named Joanna Rutter. She likes to keep her rice and protein separate (the wrong way).

The Rutter Requiem