Requiem for You lets tributes flow in life
February 3, 2008
Flowers and a heartfelt eulogy are all well and good, but sometimes you want something with a little more panache for a final sendoff.
Enter Requiem For You, a new Austrian company that will compose, record and perform customized requiems to honour the lives of "truly outstanding individuals."
"The idea came from two, three, four hundred years ago," says Andreas Roos, director of the Salzburg-based company.
The famous, the wealthy and the blue of blood used to commission composers to create musical tributes to their accomplishments, he says, but the guest of honour often missed the premiere.
"The dress rehearsal of this requiem was usually at the funeral," Roos says.
For those who'd like to be sitting in the audience when their praises are sung, Requiem for You will also create laudatios, or songs of admiration. Laudatios are like Academy Award introductions set to music, Roos says, and they're ideal for marking a wedding, birthday or anniversary.
A short requiem performed by a small orchestra starts at about $30,000, while an elaborate program with cast of 140 and a famous name or two will run about $440,000. The repertoire isn't limited to classical music, either -- the company will happily create a jazz, Broadway-style or rock requiem for clients anywhere in the world, he says.
Requiem for You hasn't sold any custom compositions in the two months it has been up and running, Roos says, but a few potential clients have surfaced.
"We are an exotic product," he says. "We are absolutely rare and unique worldwide."
Trendwatching.com coined the term "gravanity" (a combination of graffiti and vanity) to describe this desire for ordinary people to leave behind something -- preferably in public -- for when they're gone.
"Consider it a 21st century version of university libraries and hospital wings named after the rich ruling classes," the consumer trends firm says.
A growing range of options from the modest to the grandiose means it's no longer just Rockefellers or Carnegies who can leave their mark.
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