I began writing a requiem in the late 90s when I was 19 and still studying. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, I didn’t have a specific reason for doing so, other than I fancied giving it a go, as I loved choral and orchestral music. Mozart was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg to write his, although he never completed any section other than the Introit, and the work had to be completed by his student Süssmayr; Verdi wrote his in memory of Alessandro Manzoni; it is not clear why Fauré wrote his; Duruflé wrote his purely for money; Britten wrote his War Requiem for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed during World War II; John Rutter and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote theirs in memory of their fathers, both in 1985. Every one of these composers used different sections of the Latin Requiem Mass and there is little similarity between them. This, rather helpfully, left the door wide open for me to choose which sections I could use. 

Over many years, I dabbled with a few ideas here and there, but never got particularly far. The first section I wrote was the Rex Tremendæ, although only about half of this was written. I then started various other beginnings and ideas over the following years. In 2006, I started writing the Recordare and completed around half of what is now featured for the choir I was directing at the time. In early 2009, I finished the Lux æterna for a chapel choir with whom I was working. This remained the only fully completed movement for many years, which was performed in numerous settings between 2009 and 2012. 

The COVID-19 pandemic began to rumble around the world at the very end of 2019. In the first few months of 2020, we all became aware it was more serious than originally anticipated and, that year, it affected every person on the planet for many years. The World Health Organisation declared it to be a pandemic on 11th March 2020. Many of us know someone who has died from this disease. In my case, the first person I knew to die was the co-leader of my orchestra, who passed on 5th April 2020, twelve days after we were put into lockdown. This made me and many others focus greatly on the severity of the situation, and made us wonder just how many people we would lose during this time of uncertainty. 23 days later, we lost my aunt to Alzheimer’s, who my parents and I had been able to see just a few days before the lockdown commenced. I could not go to either of these people’s funerals, or see grieving relatives, and this was just the beginning. 
 

I live in the UK. We were initially locked down from 24th March 2020 until the middle of the year, when things began to ease. In early September, we were able to begin holding professional rehearsals again, and I was able to start choir rehearsals once more. In one of those early rehearsals, with my choir split across multiple time slots and separated by 2 metres, with alcohol gel and wiping down seats and surfaces in between, I decided to do a rehearsal on vocal blending. I made up a two-part piece on the spot and told them to sing it to the lyrics of Kyrie eleison. I gave little thought to this, it was just an exercise. After one of the rehearsals on 22nd October 2020, one of my sopranos and one of my best friends, Sharon, messaged me telling me she really enjoyed the exercise and I should evolve the exercise into a full piece of music. This became the Kyrie which is featured in this work. She wouldn’t let it go until I agreed to write the rest of the requiem (along with many other people from that night, but she really was far more threatening in her own, unique, Scottish way). 
 

Things became worse again with the pandemic, and we were all placed into lockdown again for many months, until the vaccine began to be rolled out the following year. It was over a year later that we were finally able to produce concerts again, and we performed what is now the full Kyrie / Christe eleison in our concert on 4th December 2021. 
 

During this period, I realised this would be the perfect time to complete the requiem, as I had the time and I now had the reason to write it—in memory of all those we lost during the pandemic, whether to COVID-19 or other causes. We couldn’t go to funerals. We couldn’t hug people. We couldn’t commiserate with people, or empathise in person. We couldn’t just sob and have someone hug us because we needed it. We had to exist on our own with no human contact, mourning those we lost to whatever illness or accident in isolation. And, throughout, we faced our own mortality every day, not knowing if we would contract this disease and die ourselves just from visiting the local shop for food, even whilst wearing masks and using alcohol gel. 
 

I had completed various beginnings of pieces prior to the events which began in 2019. Around 75% of the requiem was completed between September 2020 and February 2023. Many initial ideas were binned or massively reworked. Even three weeks before the premiere, sections were still being rewritten. It also occurred to me, when researching other requiems, that composers generally only ever set the text of the various sections of the Latin Requiem Mass. Additionally, I wanted this requiem to focus less on death and more on celebrating the lives of people who had been lost. I had had in mind from mid-2022 that I wanted to write an additional movement, and around three weeks before the premiere of this work, I wrote movement eight, Remembrance, in two days. I wanted to have a moment of relief from the text which was just orchestral, to give the audience space to remember those who they lost during this time, or at any time. As far as I am aware, no other requiem composer has ever done this. 
 

Requiem Pandemus premiered on 11th March 2023 (watch the full performance in the Gallery), exactly three years after the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic. At the time of writing, the world is very much back to normal, but still very much feeling the effects of the pandemic. We have moved on from the horrors of the early days and the terror which we all felt. Most of us have had COVID-19 at some point. Ironically, when I conducted the premiere, I had COVID-19, but I was asymptomatic and didn't know. Pretty much all of us lost someone during those three years to COVID-19 or something else, and weren’t able to properly mourn them at the time. 
 

I am terrifically grateful to all of the people who indulged me whilst I was writing this by listening to the various sections as I wrote them, or sang them with me. These people are too numerous to mention, but I am thankful to you all. Particular thanks must go to Raven, Ryan, Eddie, Helen, Merilee, Sharon, Chris, Andrea, and my parents. I am also beyond grateful to the choir and orchestra who first performed it, and the audience who gave such a strong reaction. 
 

Requiem Pandemus is dedicated to all those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of the cause of death, and to all those left behind who mourn.