Beeldenstorm
Jean Richafort's Requiem

In August 1566, men wearing red sashes, symbols of resistance against Philip II of Spain, stormed the Pieterskerk in Leiden and plundered its interior in an open act of rebellion against Spanish rule and the Catholic Church. Although guards initially succeeded in driving the vandals away and securing the doors, enraged iconoclasts broke in again that very night, and by the following day the church had fallen to the rebellious mob. Much of the interior was destroyed, but a number of valuable objects were saved, having been hidden in the locked sacristy. Less than a week later, Philip II responded with force, sending Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba and his army north. His arrival marked the beginning of a ruthless campaign of repression, and the start of the Eighty Years' War for Dutch independence.

Among the objects that survived is a collection of the church's manuscript choirbooks, containing sacred music by the greatest Franco-Flemish masters of the age. This program features one of the masterpieces preserved in these books: a six-voice Requiem by the Netherlandish composer Jean Richafort, possibly composed in memory of his teacher, the celebrated Josquin des Prez.

Requiem services ranked among the most important liturgical events of the year and, by the end of the sixteenth century, were sung weekly in the Pieterskerk. During these ceremonies, the faithful sang and prayed for the souls of the departed, believing that such acts could shorten their time in Purgatory and thus ease their suffering. In 1560, the singers of the Pieterskerk performed polyphony during a Requiem Mass commemorating all those who had died "innocently" in Leiden, perhaps even using this very work.

This program seeks to reconstruct the experience of a Requiem service as it may have been heard in Leiden between the copying of Richafort's composition in 1559 and the sack of the church in 1566, presenting the Mass within its original liturgical context, including the use of dramatic elements such as bells and processions.