Several years ago, Derek Machan, the choral director at Waterford High School, commissioned me to compose a new requiem in memory of his good friend Kris Noveaus, the choir director at Union Grove High School, who had been tragically killed (along with her husband) in a motorcycle accident. I ended up composing a Short Requiem comprised of four movements: Requiem Aeternam, Kyrie, Pie Jesu, and In Paradisum. A few months later, the work was performed by the combined forces of my Carthage Chamber Singers and the senior choir at Holy Communion Lutheran Church for a concert marking my 25th anniversary as the congregation’s minister of music. Laura Wangaard was the clarinetist.
This is the Pie Jesu. If you listen closely to the clarinet part, you may detect references to “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus loves the little children.” I was moved to add these passages to the work after the horrendous Sandy Hook school shooting in which a number of innocent young children were killed.