A Requiem in Our Time, Op. 3 (1953) was the first work by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara to appear on the musical map, winning first prize at the 1954 Thor Johnson Brass Composition competition while the composer was still a student in Finland, just before he arrived for a stint of graduate study in the United States. It is a brightly scored, four-movement work for 13-part brass choir, timpani, and percussion (there are no voices) dedicated "to the memory of my mother," and lasts just under ten minutes.

The movements of A Requiem in Our Time are: 1) Hymnus, 2) "Credo et dubito," 3) Dies Irae, and 4) Lacrymosa. The opening movement is marked Festivamente and begins with a lively trombone solo (with pointed trumpet accompaniment); it changes meter frequently, and there is much energetic fanfare throughout—an unusual and striking way to begin a requiem, to be sure. "Credo et dubito" is fast; as it takes off, the muted trumpet and muted horn toss around a quietly flashing, secco, staccato sixteenth-note phrase (the trumpet gets xylophone support, but not the horn). Several times this Vivace is dissolved by a Grave chorale in horns and low brass, but it always manages to start up again. The Dies Irae is one continuous, sharply-articulated Allegro, while the final Lacrymosa is the truest representative of the kind of music we normally might think of as belonging in a requiem. A velvety curtain of overlapping C sharps in the horns opens and closes this gentle Larghetto tranquillo.

© Blair Johnston, Rovi