Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

Because it is a requiem, fittingly, for the blind violence and depersonalized hatred of war. On the morning of 9/12, I mentioned to someone that I was hungry to hear "Finlandia" the Methodist hymn, and a very noted minister replied, quite angrily, that a hymn about the love of one's own country and respect for others love of theirs was hardly a fitting choice in the context of the attack on our country. He was hungry for blood retribution and said so. Yet to me Finlandia embodies exactly what was violated on 9/11, and the specific grief and redemption of Britten's War Requiem is the only work I know of that moves from massive terrible grief to solace to hope on that scale.

Mary R. Chione