Requiem for Humanity with Dvorak's Mass in D

Shrewsbury Choral Society

Requiem for Humanity was composed by Helen Ostafew and is a mass which brings together world views on life and death. It sets parts of the Latin mass alongside texts from Buddhism, Judaism, Daoism and Hinduism. It also incorporates inspirational quotes from Gandhi and poems by W. B. Yates and W. H. Auden.

Dutch chamber choir La Colombe did the premiere in the Netherlands and released this CD in 2015. Since then it has been performed in Germany and the UK and one of the songs, May God Remember, was chosen for BBC introducing in the West.

Dvorak’s Mass in D major was instigated by leading architect and patron of the arts Josef Hlavka, later the founder and first president of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 1886 Hlavka had a new chapel built at his summer residence, a castle in Luzany in Western Bohemia. When the chapel was to be consecrated the following year, he asked his friend Dvorak to write a new mass for the occasion. Dvorak, who thought very highly of Hlavka, was glad to oblige and wrote a mass for solos, choir and organ. He completed the work within three months.