Blessed Are the Dead

This motet, from William Beckstrand's Requiem, is well suited for All Saints Sunday as an ending for a concert or worship service. The composition's haunting final passage is intended to be repeated continuously in a recessional, the music fading as if to the heavens. The Latin chant from the Requiem Mass (Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.") is accompanied by a verse in English from the Epistle for All Souls Day: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Revelation 14:13) Part of the National Lutheran Choir Series.