Separating the sheep from the goats

Earlier this week, I went to the last of the summer sings of the Paul Madore Chorale at the Old Town Hall in Salem, MA.  It was another sultry, not to say stifling, evening.  The program this time was the Verdi Requiem, one of the truly great pieces of music.  There was an accompanist, a small, volunteer orchestra, a somewhat under-staffed chorus and four absolutely fantastic soloists.  To say that running the whole piece without rehearsal and with such a motley crew (no oboes, or double basses and the entire brass section consisting of one paltry trumpet) was ambitious would be a serious understatement.  But because the soloists can pretty much carry the entire piece on their backs, it actually turned out to be a magnificent musical experience.

Surprisingly, there were three of us bassoons (only one part missing, therefore).  I was lucky to get to play the first part, and therefore to enjoy all the wonderful solo passages, particularly in the Quid sum miser and Ingemisco sections of the Sequentia (Dies Irae).  Verdi really created a wonderful score for the bassoon section.  I was reminded of the first time I played the piece (as 4th bassoon) in Peterborough Cathedral (UK) in 1973 (or 74).  Now, that was a fantastic experience: the off-stage trumpets echoing around the nooks and crannies of the magnificent edifice during the Tuba mirum section.  Truly unforgettable.

So, I was curious to take a closer look at the words of the requiem mass.  I've always been surprised at just how different the words can be in the different settings (and how they are frequently grouped together).  I looked up the Missale Romanum on the web and it certainly is confusing.  This is a good source of the text.

I hadn't really noticed before how the Sequentia is divided into 19 stanzas of rhyming triplets. To me there is something quite magical about these words, and I'm not even Catholic.  For example:

Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulcra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum.
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth, Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth, All before the throne it bringeth.

One of my favorite triplets is:

Inter oves locum praesta, Et ab haedis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra.
With Thy favored sheep, oh, place me; Nor among the goats abase me, But to Thy right hand upraise me.

But, I wonder, what is it about sheep that is so wonderful? And what's wrong with goats? Haedis (sometimes spelled hoedis), by the way is perhaps better translated as kids. Perhaps there's an element of age discrimination, too.  I will develop that theme in my latest Letter from Europa.