{"id":758742,"date":"2019-11-09T08:09:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T13:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=758742"},"modified":"2019-11-09T08:09:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T13:09:27","slug":"honoring-the-death-of-pets-inspired-animal-requiem-by-rachel-fuller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=758742","title":{"rendered":"Honoring the death of ‘pets’ inspired Animal Requiem by Rachel Fuller"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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RACHEL FULLER: 'In the middle of sort of the grief of losing our dogs I thought I should do this for animals. I should do it as a memorial to honor them because they play such a huge role in our lives.'<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

PETER LARSEN:<\/strong> ‘Composer Rachel Fuller didn\u2019t get her first dog until she was 26 \u2014 she\u2019d had cats as a kid \u2014 but one led to another and another and over three or four years she and her husband Pete Townshend \u2014 yes, that Pete Townshend, guitarist-singer in the legendary rock band the Who \u2014 found themselves with a six-pack of pooches. \u201cIt was a fabulous pack, for well over a decade we just lived with this pack of dogs,\u201d says Fuller, who in addition to orchestral pieces and scores for film, television and theater, occasionally performs as a singer-songwriter… Fuller, 46, whose new album, \u201cAnimal Requiem,\u201d was released earlier this month, was in Los Angeles in advance of its United States\u2019 debut at UCLA\u2019s Royce Hall on Saturday, Oct. 26…<\/em><\/p>\n

She says that after the loss of her beloved Spud, the rest of four-legged family members soon followed: Flash, the border collie that Townshend got around the same time Fuller brought home Spud; Harry, another golden retriever; Barney, a Bichon Frise; Wistle, the Yorkshire terrier that slept by Fuller\u2019s head at night; and Cracker, a poodle whom Fuller describes as both Machiavellian and pure of heart. It was, she says, a period of devastating pain, but one in which her long-held dream of writing a classical requiem found new purpose and meaning…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnimal Requiem,\u201d in addition to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Choir of London, also includes several unexpected elements, including a recording of birdsong from the cave where St. Francis of Assisi lived out his life, which Fuller recorded on her iPhone. \u201cI am not immune to doing what I call real pretentious artist (stuff),\u201d Fuller says, laughing as she embarks this story. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018Right, so St. Francis of Assisi was the patron saint of animals, you hear lots of stories about how he used to go preach to animals in the woods, and there\u2019s a famous scene called Conference of the Birds where he started to preach to all these birds and they fell silent…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do a sort of bog-standard (i.e. basic) requiem, I wanted it to have a theme,\u201d Fuller says. \u201cBenjamin Britten had written a war requiem, which actually is a requiem for peace. A British composer called Howard Goodall had done a requiem to light called \u2018Eternal Light.\u2019 \u201cI guess in the middle of sort of the grief of losing our dogs I thought I should do this for animals,\u201d she says. \u201cI should do it as a memorial to honor them because they play such a huge role in our lives, but when we experience loss (of a pet) we don\u2019t really have any ritual or comfort. And I thought, if I can write music that moves people, hopefully, it would a source of uplift and comfort, and that was it’.<\/em> \u00a0SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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