Roel van Oosten | Requiem voor Johann de Witt | 2022 | 42´
For percussion, piano, organ, soprano and choir
Link for the score | Composer's website
REQUIEM in memoriam Johan de Witt, was written to commemorate the Disaster Year of 1672, when the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was attacked and overrun from the east, south and west. Johan de Witt - Grand Pensionary, republican, driving force of 'De Ware Vrijheid', the idea of undivided civil government - and his brother Cornelis had to pay for this raid with their lives. On 20 August 1672, they were lynched in The Hague by an Orangist mob, by the Ultimi Barbarorum, by the worst barbarians, according to Baruch Spinoza. This composition for choir, solo soprano, piano, organ and percussion combines parts from the Catholic requiem mass with excerpts from a Latin ode to Johan de Witt (parts II and VII) by Dutch poet Joan van Broekhuizen (1649-1707). Part II also features Spinoza's exclamation 'Ultimi Barbarorum' and the well-known saying 'redeloos, radeloos, reddeloos' - senseless, desperate, irredeemable - referring respectively to the Dutch people, government, and country. The sacred requiem texts are written in an accessible style, the profane text fragments are more dissonant and robustly set. REQUIEM in memoriam Johan de Witt was first performed on 10 September 2022 in The Hague's Kloosterkerk, by The Carol Company choir, Cait Frizzell (soprano), Sepp Grotenhuis (piano), Andrew Wright (organ) and Konstantyn Napolov (percussion), directed by chief conductor Stef Collignon.