Resumen: The Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 of Gabriel Fauré has been acknowledged as one of the most captivating works that have been written for the Requiem Mass. It broke the prototypes hitherto adopted for the creation of this music genre. More specifically, Fauré embodied a vision of death different from his contemporary composers and predecessors through an engaging musical style. This may be interpreted as a consequence of his personal understanding of faith and religious sentiment. One could perhaps say that style changes have their root on the artists¿ free decision, shaped by joys and travails of their life and leaded by their inner voices or conscious self-awareness. Recalling the words from E. H. Gombrich about artistic style, the appealing and elegant musical style displayed in Fauré¿s Requiem is ¿a mask which hides as much as it reveals¿,
because it echoes the reality whilst concealing its true face. Now, what did Fauré pretend to hide? What did he yearn to reveal? There were different opinions on these two questions. The motivations behind the evolving composition yet remain unclear, however the luster reflected in its well-chosen liturgical texts, complemented and embellished by its musical forms and melodies, allow to let guess the reasons why, for whom and how the French composer wrote this ¿lullaby of death¿, as he himself described it. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore that all human actions follow from one¿s choice.
