Mansfield University Festival Chorus - Forrest: Requiem for the Living - Sharp & Ramsay: Come Away to the Skies (A High Lonesome Ma (2017)

Requiem for the Living is a work for choir and chamber orchestra inspired by the Requiem of Faure and Rutter. Although Dan Forrest incorporated the traditional Kyrie, Agnus Dei, Sanctus and Lux Aeterna, he replaced Dies Irae with Vanitas Vanitatum, about the pain of existence.
However, the overall effect of the piece is a celebration of life.
Forrest's Requiem for the Living has been performed more than 100 times worldwide in the year since it was written in 2013, including performances in Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and numerous Carnegie Hall performances.
The High Lonesome Mass, composed by Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsey, is a bluegrass mass. Tim Sharp explains the history of collecting music for this unique mass. The words "high, lonesome" are taken from Bill Monroe's famous descriptions of bluegrass music. Composers Sharp and Ramsey combine the sound of southern vocal and instrumental harmony with the traditional form of the mass, using melodies of early American hymns and bluegrass instruments.
The work is a combination of ageless words of worship from the ordinariate of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) and the indigenous music of the American South. The elements of form-note singing and sacred harp are intertwined with the beautiful melodies and harmonies of Appalachian folk music.