Sanctus. Part IV from Requiem in Memoriam Johan de Witt.
Performance 10 September 2022 in the Kloosterkerk The Hague.
Composer – Roel van Oosten.
Choir – The Carol Company choir under the baton of Stef Collignon
Percussion – Konstantyn Napolov
Piano – Sepp Grotenhuis
Organ – Andrew Wright
Soprano – Cait Frizzell
• Roel van Oosten – REQUIEM in memoriam…
REQUIEM in memoriam Johan de Witt, was written to commemorate the Disaster Year of 1672, when the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was attacked and overrun from the east, south and west. Johan de Witt – Grand Pensionary, republican, driving force of ‘De Ware Vrijheid’, the idea of undivided civil government – and his brother Cornelis had to pay for this raid with their lives. On 20 August 1672, they were lynched in The Hague by an Orangist mob, by the Ultimi Barbarorum, by the worst barbarians, according to Baruch Spinoza.
This composition for choir, solo soprano, piano, organ and percussion combines parts from the Catholic requiem mass with excerpts from a Latin ode to Johan de Witt (parts II and VII) by Dutch poet Joan van Broekhuizen (1649-1707). Part II also features Spinoza’s exclamation ‘Ultimi Barbarorum’ and the well-known saying ‘redeloos, radeloos, reddeloos’ – senseless, desperate, irredeemable – referring respectively to the Dutch people, government, and country. The sacred requiem texts are written in an accessible style, and the profane text fragments are more dissonant and robustly set.