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Randall Thompson: Requiem (Philadelphia Singers, Hayes) Randall Thompson's choral works retain the affection of American choral singers and conductors alike. The Requiem is his masterpiece, written in response to the loss of close friends and colleagues. Using a wide-ranging selection of Biblical verses, it takes the form of a dramatic dialogue between two choirs, a 'chorus of mourners' and a 'chorus of the faithful', concerning eternal life. Recorded here for the first time in it's complete form, this Requiem is an emotional and dramatically intense journey of conflict and resolution, and entirely unique within American music history and the requiem tradition as a whole.