Scottish composer James Macmillan wrote Cantos Sagrados in 1989. Comprising three movements, the work apposes the words of poets Ariel Dorfman (Identity, Sun Stone) and Ana Maria Mendoza (Virgin of Guadalupe) with traditional Latin liturgical texts. Setting these words alongside one another creates a work that is both sacred and secular, an impulse Macmillan pursued as a result of his intense interest in Liberation Theology, a doctrinal premise within corners of the Catholic Church that views uplifting the disadvantaged citizens of the world as the primary thrust of religion. Each movement addresses harsh atrocities of some Latin American political histories. Identity depicts a phone call relating the discovery of a corpse floating in the river, suggestive of the "desaparacidos," victims of political kidnappings who disappear and whose fates are never acknowledged. Words from the Requiem Mass set in a hymn-like fashion follow. Virgin of Guadalupe questions how populations on two continents could possibly venerate the same Mary, when one population, the conquerors, were responsible for the destruction of indigenous communities in the New World. The poetry here is accompanied by a Latin hymn to Mary. Sun Stone depicts a political execution, the misgivings of the executioner, and explores the paradox of illumination (redemption?) through death. Crucifixion text underpins this poem.

Maurice Duruflé completed his Requiem in 1947 and created three principal versions for chorus and: orchestra, chamber orchestra and organ, and organ (which Kinnara will perform here). The Requiem is certainly his most celebrated work, one of only eleven published pieces. His limited body of composition is owed to the fact that Duruflé was a very self-critical individual, often revising or withdrawing works many years after he composed them. The ones that remain are all of very high quality, and because of this, his position within the canon of western music (particularly sacred music) has been secure for decades. The appeal of the music itself must be the result of his awareness of mid-20th century trends while he maintained a personal preference for more retrospective Romantic principals of composition, but with rather ancient chant music as source material. Indeed this Requiem is in large part based on, and entirely inspired by medieval (Gregorian) chant melodies for the Mass for the Dead. Vocal lines (often singular) are immediately reminiscent of these chants, and fuller textures preserve the improvisatory feeling of the singing because of regularly shifting meters. The unmistakably French sound of the work only contributes further to the fluidity and linearity of the writing.

–J.D. Burnett, November 2022