The Walla Walla Choral Society’s final concert of the season will be Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living. This extraordinary five-movement composition, completed in 2013, is an extended setting of the Requiem, scored for boy soprano/tenor, soprano, choir, and orchestra. 

For this concert, the Choral Society welcomes student singers and musicians from College Place High School and Walla Walla High School, along with Dr. Kraig Scott on the organ, to perform this beautiful composition in a special event for the Walla Walla Valley.

The Latin text that Forrest set combines sections from the Requiem with biblical texts from Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job. Long melodies often begin mysteriously and softly in most movements and develop toward a brilliant ending. Most notably, the second movement deals with the transience of everything living, based on Latin texts not usually part of the Requiem.

Traditionally, a requiem is a prayer for rest for the deceased. However, in Forrest’s innovative work, this prayer becomes a plea for rest for those struggling through pain. The final movement, Lux Aeterna, portrays light, peace, and rest – for the deceased and the living.