I was first asked for a work from our Russian friends for children's chorus and piano. It was at the time when the Chechen war was raging and so I wanted my piece to be a protest. I chose texts from Brigitte's father, Konrad Bänninger, Dies irae plus the original latin text from the requiem mass. We heard that it had been performed but not how it went!

Shortly afterwards I had the call from Dominik Blum asking for a piece for his men's choir. He also wanted to perform a work by Eliot Carter on the same program using flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion and so this determined the instruments of the ensemble for my piece. At Dominik's suggestion, there was also a part for solo soprano, for Fiona.

All this meant that the piece had to be completely different from the work for children and piano, only the texts remained.

Dominik worked hard to make the work succeed, which in fact it did, although much of the piece was stylistically foreign for the choir members. However, by the time the choir came together with the instrumentalists and soloist (who were excellent) they started to understand the work and rose to the occasion producing performances which delighted audiences and critics. There were two performances, in Frauenfeld and in Winterthur—the latter was recorded by the Swiss radio.

Here are two extracts of reviews of those performances from the local newspaper (plus English translations):

Auftragswerk „Dies Irae“ Das grösste Interesse an diesem Programm beansprucht aber das Auftragswerk „Dies Irae“ von Kit Powell, auf zwei Pfeilern ruhend: der klassischen „Dies Irae“-Sequenz des „Requiems“ und einem Gedicht von Konrad Bänninger, das der Toten, Verletzten und Vertriebenen des Weltkrieges gedenkt. Der Komponist verbindet sie zu einer Einheit, findet für die fragenden, tröstlichen Worte einfache, zu Herzen gehende Töne für eine Sopranstimme — meisterhaft gesungen von seiner Tochter Fiona Powell —, weist dem Chor sowohl kraftvoll aufwühlende wie auch resignierende Partien zu und setzt gewaltige dramatische Akzente in der Begleitung, namentlich im Schlagzeug. Auch wenn das Werk beim ersten Zuhören nicht leicht zu verstehen ist: Seiner Wirkung kann sich niemand entziehen. Der Komponist konnte sich nicht nur in Winterthur für herzlichen Beifall bedanken — man wird ihn auch in Frauenfeld feiern.Werner Raths, «Thurgauer Volkszeitung» 29. Mai, 1997Commissioned work „Dies Irae“The greatest interest in this program, however, is the commissioned work "Dies Irae" by Kit Powell, resting on two pillars: the classic "Dies Irae" sequence of the "Requiem" and a poem by Konrad Bänninger that commemorates the dead, injured and displaced of the World War. The composer combines them into a unity, finds simple, heartfelt tones for the questioning, comforting words for a soprano voice — masterfully sung by his daughter Fiona Powell —, assigns the choir both powerfully stirring and reconciling parts and sets huge dramatic accents in the accompaniment, especially in the percussion.Even if the work is not easy to understand at first hearing, no one can escape its effect. The composer was not only able to thank the audience for the warm applause in Winterthur - he will also be celebrated in Frauenfeld.Werner Raths, «Thurgauer Volkszeitung» 29 May, 1997Höhepunkt: «Dies Irae»Der Höhepunkt des Konzertes brachte die Uraufführung des etwa eine halbe Stunde dauernden Auftragswerkes: «Dies Irae» für Sopransolo, Männerchor und sechs Instrumentalisten von Kit Powell. Neben der traditionellen Sequenz aus dein liturgischen Requiemtext ist noch ein Gedicht von Konrad Bänninger aus dem Jahre 1918 mitvertont, «Dies Irae», besticht durch die ebenso souveräne wie auch ökonomische Handhabung der eingesetzten Mittel. Der Chor muss bald flüstern und zischen, psalmodiert gelegentlich auf einem einzigen Ton, fächert sich zu wundervoller Vielstimmigkeit auf oder produziert gar clusterartige Klänge. Die melodisch anspruchsvollsten Partien sind dem Solosopran zugewiesen, von der Tochter des Komponisten Fiona Powell mit stimmlicher und intonatorischer Meisterschaft grossartig interpretiert. Starke Akzente setzt dazu aber auch das Instrumentalsextett. Dominik Blum brachte das Werk mit seinen Leuten zu einer imponierenden und eindrucksvollen Wiedergabe, und zum Schluss durften sich Interpreten und Komponist für viel herzlichen Beifall bedanken.Rudolf Werner, «Thurgauer Volkszeitung» 4. Juni, 1997Highlight: «Dies Irae»The highlight of the concert was the premiere of the half-hour-long commissioned work: «Dies Irae» for soprano solo, male choir and six instrumentalists by Kit Powell. In addition to the traditional sequence from the liturgical requiem text, a poem by Konrad Bänninger from 1918 is also set to music. «Dies Irae» impresses with its confident and economical use of the means used. The choir is required to whisper and hiss, occasionally to intone on a single note, and then fans out into wonderful polyphony or even cluster-like sounds. The most melodically demanding parts are assigned to the solo soprano, brilliantly interpreted by the composer's daughter Fiona Powell with vocal and intonation mastery. The instrumental sextet also sets strong accents. Dominik Blum and his team gave an impressive and splendid performance of the work, and at the end the performers and composer were able to thank everyone for the very enthusiastic applause.Rudolf Werner, «Thurgauer Volkszeitung» June 4, 1997

During the preparation for the concerts, Dominik noticed that there was time for another shorter work and so he ask the flautist to play my Flötenspieler und Fledermäuse. This was superbly done by Dominique Hunziger (who performed it again later several times) and marks the beginning of our friendship with him and his wife Anne.

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Since I felt that there was so much good in this piece, I decided to revise it, with a view to making it simpler to perform. This meant making small changes to the men's choir parts, which although well done at the first performance, had sections which I felt were unnecessarily difficult. Especially in the last movement, where much of the choral writing was with "approximate" notation — with the idea of producing random clusters, something which was much more difficult for the singers than I had imagined. This has now been replaced with a precisely notated section based on the original plainsong ("Oro supplex …" + "Lacrymosa …") which is also doubled in the instrumental parts.

I have added a Piano Reduction (Klavierauszug) which means that the singers will have less to carry for a performance. This and the other performing materials are attached here:

Here is the Swiss radio recording of the 4th movement. In the revised score I have corrected the curious order of the Latin text verses of the original version, but the mood remains the same:

Sängervereinigung Freundschaft, Frauenfeld. Leitung: Dominik Blum, Solosopran: Fiona Powell