several years ago I attended a requiem and really liked it, but I’ve forgotten the name of the composer. It was a modern piece (post 1900), and I’m pretty sure the composer’s name just had four letters in it.
can anyone help me find it?
Well, it ain’t Berg and it ain’t Pärt, cause neither of them wrote a Requiem.
I love me a good stumper like this, but in the meantime you might be faster looking up who did the performance and going from there… Let us know if we get any more hints.
In addition, neither Cage, Ives or Nono wrote a requiem.
This is fascinating, because I just don’t think of composers by how many letters in their name… Nationality, style, period, influences, alphabetically, instruments played, instruments written for - yes; how many letters - this is a fun challenge.
Maybe for you. The only four-letter composer I can think of is Bach, but he doesn’t fit the time frame.
I’ll leave this challenge in the hands of an expert. I should be working anyway. 
Was it a tonal work, or something avant-gardish?
If tonal, possibly Richard Wetz?
Jocelyn Pook has a piece called Requiem Aeternam, but it’s not a full mass.
Fauré has ‘faur’ letters in his name 
(although the earliest version of his was finished before 1900).
How’s about Nicholas Lens?
Lukas Foss!! Nah, bugger it, he didn’t write one, either.
It was in the local Roman Catholic Cathedral about 12 or 15 years ago - I doubt that they keep the programmes that far back.
I seem to recall the composer’s name was an Anglo-Saxon type of name, if that’s of any assistance.
I’ve commented before that we need a :groan: smiley.
Was it the traditional liturgical text in Latin? Or English? Or a mix? Or different text just grouped under the title of Requiem?
Rutter.
No, probably not–fails the four letter test, but while under ordinary circumstances his name comes readily to mind, immediately after reading this question his name ran away and refused to come back for a while.
Sink me, this is tough.
Phillip Wood - nope.
Hugh Wood - nope.
Judith Weir - nope.
Phyllis Tate has a thing called ‘A Secular Requiem’, based on Shakespeare’s ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’.
Martin Shaw - nope.
Minna Keal - couldn’t find her catalogue online…
Trevor Hold wrote a thing called ‘Requiescat’…
Gareth Glyn - nope.
Eric Fogg - nope.
Gordon Dale - nope.
Gerard Francis Cobb - nope.
Arthur Duff - nope.
Alan Bush - nope.
Stanley Bate - nope.
Giving up for the evening - I’ll phone you when the answer comes to me at 4 AM…
I just found this: http://www.requiemsurvey.org/ …plenty to choose from!
Andrew Lloyd Webber (six letters) wrote a Requiem:
The best-known song from it is probably “Pie Jesu”:
Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings isn’t a requiem, as such, but has often been used as one (at the time of JFK’s death, in the movie Platoon, and after 9-11, as shown here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMz8fKkG2g&feature=PlayList&p=1F994042A5A002B9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1
P.D.Q.?
The Faure Requiem is often performed in churches during Lent.
LOL. I just bought that exact recording not two weeks ago. I get to perform it in a couple months.