Michel Chion

Produced at the studios of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and commissioned by the Ina-GRM in Paris (France) and was premiered on March 19, 1973 at the Théâtre Récamier in Paris, in a concert given by the GRM. "The Requiem was composed whilst thinking about the troubled minority of the living, rather than the silent majority of the dead. Also, I tried to turn this oratorio into a "great sonic show," cinemascope music. One can detect the obvious (at least to me) influence of a few filmmakers and films, more in the way of playing with forms, time and space, than through realistic evocations. Thomas Mann's Docteur Faustus was another influence, again acknowledged after the fact; the pages spent describing the imaginary works of Adrian Leverkühn might have inspired the megalomaniac dream of carrying bits and pieces
of them into the sound world. With Requiem, my intention was not to deliver a message or a manifesto, whether pro- or anti-religious. Instead, this work is a personal testimony, into which listeners are invited to project their own self, if they care to inhabit it with their own experience and sensibility." Michel Chion. Limited edition