Notes on the origins of "Requiem"

There is a long tradition for composers writing requiems as concert works (in contrast to music that is created strictly as part of a liturgical service).  The requiem texts lend themselves to potent, dramatic musical settings expressing a range of profound, emotionally charged, and complex ideas.  Over the past several centuries, many composers have turned to the chorus/soloist/orchestra model to express these ideas (Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Fauré, Duruflé, Britten, Rutter to name just a few). My requiem comes from this tradition.

The ideas that are the basis for Requiem have been gestating for over a decade, but it wasn’t until I began discussing the possibility of creating the piece for Christian Lane and the musicians at Emmanual Church that I began work in earnest. The work was completed in late 2024, with revisions taking place throughout the beginning of this year.

The tonal structure for the entire requiem is based on the musical material laid out in the first movement (Introitus/Kyrie), which serves as a blueprint for the tonal centers of six movements that follow (B minor, Db major, Bb major, Bb minor, C minor, F# minor, and finally back to Bb minor) ending with the movement In Paradisum in D major.

I present text in both Latin and English, with the choral music set in Latin and the vocal soloists singing in English (a notable exception is the Pie Jesu, which is performed by a duet of solo soprano and alto voices in Latin). Because there is such potency in both languages—Latin widely recognized as the language of the mass, and English as the primary language for most of the American audience—I found that marrying the two languages offered a depth that could not be achieved by using either language alone.  Using both languages helps define the roles of the chorus and solo vocal forces, acknowledging the traditional Latin mass texts in the choir while casting the soloists as the primary “story tellers” of the piece.

Creating this requiem has been a deeply personal endeavor.  As I enter into what I can only predict will be the last several decades of my life, it seems fitting to compose a work that reflects on mortality and commemorates those who have passed.  In particular, I am mindful of those teachers and mentors, now gone, who have guided me throughout my life, and who continue to live on through my memory and through my music.

Featured soloists for Requiem premiere

I am please to announce that singers Nicole Stover, Kaylee Parker, Andrew Hann, and Michael Manganiello will be the featured soloists for the premiere of Requiem on November 2, 2025, 4pm at Emmanuel Church in Baltimore. As regular members of the Emmanuel Church choir, these impressive musicians are colleagues and frequent collaborators—an ideal situation for brining a new work to life.

Creating this requiem has been a significant and deeply personal endeavor for me.  Entrusting its premiere to the musicians of the Emmanuel Choir under Christian Lane’s direction is an experience few composers can wish for.  When I first heard the ensemble perform several years ago, I knew this was where I wanted my requiem to be born. Superb musicianship, artistic vision, and a willingness to take risks—these are the qualities that make such a collaboration a true gift to any composer. 

"Requiem" premieres November 2, 2025 in Baltimore

I am delighted to announce the premiere of Requiem, a large-scale work for mixed voice choir, SATB soloists, and orchestra. The piece will be featured as part of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church concert series in Baltimore, Maryland under the direction of Christian Lane, and will share the program with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered.

Requiem is my response to the challenge of loss—both personal and communal—that we all face as part of our human experience. With a backdrop of global turmoil we are experiencing in the year 2025, the work is simultaneously a commemoration of the dead and a celebration for the living. It’s a focal point for processing our feelings about mortality, and about the wonder of our existence. I offer this piece to listeners as an experience for solace, as a meditation for one’s feelings of grief, loss, hope, and of healing.

The concert will take place Sunday, November 2, 2025 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 811 Cathedral Street in Baltimore. Tickets are available online here.

"Songs of Love and Longing" premieres January 26, 2025

Completed in 2022, Songs of Love and Longing with finally receive a premiere at King’s Chapel in Boston, with the King’s Chapel Choir and harpist Franziska Huhn under the direction of Heinrich Christensen. The work was originally intended to premiere in 2022 at a concert commemorating Daniel Pinkham’s 100th birthday, but due to unforeseeable circumstances (the sudden illness of one of the key performers), the work has remained unheard until now. Tickets are available online through www.kings-chapel.org. The piece consists of 5 songs set to texts by James Shirley, Amy Lowell, Siegfried Sassoon, Emily Dickinson, and Denise Levertov.

"There Is No Rose of Such Virtue" to be performed by the Seraphim Singers

As part of the annual Seraphim Singers Christmas program, they will perform my anthem “There Is No Rose of Such Virtue” under the direction of Jennifer Lester the weekend of December 21-22, 2004. There are three opportunities to hear the concert, in West Roxbury, Newton Center, and Harvard Square, Cambridge (see concert advert below).

Concerto for Contrabass and Orchestra is coming to life

Over the past 18 months, I have been working on a full-length concerto for contrabass and orchestra.  Although this project has been percolating for many years, it has just now finally made its way out of my brain, onto paper, and into the gifted hands friends and colleagues Todd Seeber and Heinrich Christensen.

Once the first movement was completed, I approached Todd and Heinrich about doing a recording, having already completed an orchestral reduction for organ.  In the spring of 2024 we were able to record and film it, and after managing various delays, we now have a final edit and mix.

The final concerto will be in four movements. The first movement features an orchestration with winds, limited brass (horns and tuba) and strings.  Movement 2 is orchestrated for percussion and solo contrabass only, followed by a 3rd movement for solo contrabass and bass choir.  The final movement’s orchestration features the full band, including winds, brass, percussion, and strings.

At the time of this writing, I am in the completing the final composition of the 2nd and 4th movements (movement 1 and 3 are already complete), with a target of completing the entire work in the early spring of 2025.

—GGR

A Soundtrack for the Pandemic

Podcaster and journalist Wade Roush interviews Graham Gordon Ramsay and Heinrich Christensen in this thoughtful audio piece about the genesis and realization of Introspections.

Livestream premiere of "Threnody" April 7, 2022

YouTube Livestream link, ETSU Brass Faculty Recital

An evening of music for Brass Quintet, featuring faculty from the ETSU Department of Music. Program includes works by Zoe Cutler, Giovanni Gabrieli, Joan Tower, and Michael Kamen. This event will be held in ETSU’s Martin Center Recital Hall, 1328 W State of Franklin Rd, Johnson City, TN. Concert begins at 7:30 pm; Admission is free and open to the public. Contact: Cindy Godwin, 1-423-439-4276, godwinc@etsu.edu

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I am pleased to announce the premiere of Threnody by the East Tennessee State University Faculty Brass Quintet (Sarah Fellenbaum and Brett Long, trumpets, Sean Donovan, horn, Justin Waller, trombone, and Steph Frye-Clark, tuba). The performance will take place Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 7:30pm Eastern Time, and will be live streamed on YouTube (see link above).

Composed in 2021, Threnody is in memory of composer/conductor Theodore Antoniou (1935-2018). As one of my composition teachers while at Boston University, Theodore was a supportive and influential mentor early on in my life as a composer. I met him for the first time when I was a 17-year-old student at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where he came to speak about his musical life and trajectory. As part of the opening ceremonies for the BUTI students, we all performed as part of the chorus in a reading of his epic cantata Nenikikamen. The Greek title translates as “we are victorious”, and premiered at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich with enormous choral forces (over 1,000 singers if my memory serves). I remember Theodore as a fearless musician tackling enormously difficult musical projects, both within the scope of his own compositions and as a tireless proponent of other living composers’ works.

My musical tribute to Theodore attempts to convey my lasting impression of him. He was very proud of being Greek; he was champion of the music of his time; he had enormous energy and drive; he was supportive of his colleagues but did not suffer fools. I like to think of Threnody as both a celebration of Theodore as a powerful musician, and as a lament for a fallen hero.

—GGR

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Theodore Antoniou at Tanglewood, July, 1980. Photo by Graham Gordon Ramsay.

The Marvelous Emily Marvosh

On Wednesday, September 8, 2021 a group of talented musicians assembled at WGBH’s Fraser Performance Studio to record the string ensemble version of “Introspections” (details about the work can be found in the previous 5 posts). Conducted by Heinrich Christensen, the fifteen string players also performed as accompanists to the wonderful Emily Marvosh for her mesmerizing rendition of my setting of William Shakespeare’s sonnet 116. This “add-on” to the recording session became one of the high points of the evening’s efforts, as evidenced by the video above.

This setting for singer and chamber strings was adapted from a work commissioned by soprano Mary Ann Lanier in 2006. That work, Be My Love: Songs of Love, Lust, and Other Folly, was originally scored for soprano and string trio and included settings of 4 Shakespeare poems and 2 poems by Christopher Marlowe. Since the premiere in 2006, the setting of sonnet 116 has proved the most popular, receiving performances in multiple arrangements include one for organ and voice, and one with choral accompaniment. This adaptation for chamber strings is perhaps my favorite.

Introspections #5: The Final Movement

Completed on August 10, 2020, the fifth introspection is the last in the series that began last April.  I started work on this movement on July 16 during a short personal retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts.  Removed from my urban Cambridge home and distanced slightly from the tensions related to the pandemic and political strife, I embarked on this trip with the goal of bringing my mind into a more peaceful state.

Marked “Poignantly, rubato throughout”, this movement picks up from the previous one (which ends with a low pedal note C), beginning in C major with a sparse and simple melody that recurs as the main theme throughout.  Acting as the denouement for the entire work, this movement serves as a self-reminder that there is always resolution after conflict, that positive change is inevitable after times of discord, and that there will always be things bigger and more important than my own personal angst.  Perspective is difficult during times of strife, but I believe it is essential, particularly during the bad times, to remind ourselves of the beauty and wonder of the world.

I offer my heartfelt thanks to Heinrich Christensen for his constant friendship and musical support throughout this project (and so many others). His willingness to take risks with new and unknown works is a gift of immeasurable value. Tak skal du have.

--G.G.R., November 10, 2020