Blessed are they who mourn; for they shall be comforted.

Music lovers will be treated to a unique opportunity this Friday (April 9 at 8:00 p.m.) and Saturday (April 10) at Centre College, to hear Transylvania University's choir, along with choirs from Asbury, Berea, and Centre colleges, an orchestra of players from all four schools and the Lexington Philharmonic present Brahms Requiem conducted by Robert Porco.

Although the Requiem Mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begins with prayers for the dead ("Grant them eternal rest, O Lord"), Brahms' A German Requiem focuses on the living, beginning with the text "Blessed are those who bear pain: for they shall be comforted." This theme -- transition from anxiety to comfort -- recurs in all the following movements except the final one. Although the idea of the Lord is the source of the comfort, the sympathetic humanism persists throughout the work.

Of his choral masterwork, A German Requiem, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote: “As for the title, I must admit I should like to leave out the word ‘German’ and refer instead to ‘Humanity’.” This comment points directly to the heart of his greatest choral composition, in direct contrast to his tendency to speak cryptically, even jokingly, about most of his works. (Of his life-affirming and lyrical Second Symphony, for instance, he quipped that the orchestra should wear black funereal armbands “because of its dirge-like effect.”) A German Requiem may be the most comforting, humane requiem ever written.

The traditional Roman Catholic liturgical text for the requiem mass is a prayer for the dead, filled with images of the horrors of the Last Judgment. Brahms’ text, on the other hand, which he compiled from Martin Luther’s German vernacular translation of the Bible, seeks to comfort the living who must deal with and accept death. Just 33 years old when he completed the bulk of A German Requiem, Brahms already had a very personal perspective on mourning. The requiem had begun to gestate in Brahms’ mind a decade earlier, in response to the untimely and protracted death of his close friend and mentor, Robert Schumann: And there can be little doubt that the death of Brahms’ mother in February 1865, spurred him on to complete the work.

A German Requiem, however, is not simply a memorial to the composer’s mother or mentor, but a message of hope for us all. Brahms took great pains putting together his text, piecing together fragments from throughout the Bible to create a tapestry of solace.

$10 general admission (students free) at Haggin Auditorium. For more information, call 233.8300.