Judge Smith, co-founder of Van der Graaf Generator, has announced the live premiere of his orchestral Rock piece “Requiem Mass,” to be performed 12 July 2025 at the Holy Sepulchre Church, London EC1.
Purchase and Stream “Requiem Mass” on Bandcmp: https://judgesmith1.bandcamp.com/album/requiem-mass
Supporting imagery: https://www.daysoftheunderground.com/post/judge-smith-imagery-for-requiem-mass-and-the-overstayer
On Saturday 12 July 2025, Judge Smith’s “Requiem Mass” will receive its live premiere at the Holy Sepulchre Church, Holborn, London EC1, 50 years after it was originally scored.
A magnum opus of Heavy riffage, massed voices and classical orchestration, “Requiem Mass” is a Choral/Prog/Rock classic with an extraordinary backstory, and one of the key works by Van der Graaf Generator co-founder Judge Smith, a maverick figure in the British music scene since 1969.
Smith first conceived and wrote the 30-minute piece – which features a large choir plus baritone soloist, an eight-piece brass section, and a twin-guitar Rock band – in 1973. But as a self-confessed “musical primitive,” it wasn’t until 1975 that a score was produced, with Smith verbally dictating the music note by note to arranger Michael Brand.
“I can’t read or write music, but I’ve always been able to imagine quite complicated music in my head, and in considerable detail,” says Smith. “The hefty scale and strict requirements of creating a new musical setting for the Roman Requiem Mass really appealed to me, because the Mass of the Dead features the medieval poem ‘Dies Irae’, rock’n’roll lyrics of the highest order.”
Without financial backing to stage the piece, Smith was forced to shelve it while he pursued a wildly varied career producing ‘Rock theatre’ shows, writing songs for “Not The Nine O’Clock News,” and working as a librettist-for-hire. And since 1993, he’s released a series of defiantly original and sometimes hugely ambitious albums.
But in 2016, with the score having been revised by composer and music professor Ricardo Odriozola, “Requiem Mass” was finally recorded and released. It was conducted by David Temple MBE, and featured the Crouch End Festival Chorus, one of the UK’s major symphonic choirs, having performed with Ray Davis and Noel Gallagher, and presented works by Robert Fripp and David Bedford.
Now, 50 years after it was first dictated, David Temple and the Hertfordshire Chorus, alongside brass, organ and rock band accompaniment, will perform this lost classic from the heyday of Progressive/orchestral Rock live for the first time.
Tickets are available from the Hertfordshire Chorus website.
