Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986), organist at Saint–Étienne–du Mont, was renowned as a virtuoso organist.

He was also a  fastidious composer, whose small output results from sharp self-criticism, self-effacing personality, and lack of self-confidence. “I work slowly, and I throw a lot away”, he noted. And sometimes in his scores, he even wrote, “Not to be published.”

His beautiful Requiem is his most famous piece.

Duruflé wrote in unpublished program notes for a 1980 concert… “This Requiem is composed entirely on the Gregorian themes of the Mass for the Dead. Sometimes the musical text has been respected in full, the orchestra intervening only to sustain or to comment on it; sometimes I was simply inspired by it or sometimes removed myself from it altogether… This Requiem is not an ethereal work which sings of detachment from earthly worries. It reflects, in the immutable form of the Christian prayer, the agony of man faced with the mystery of his ultimate end. It is often dramatic, or filled with resignation, or hope, or terror, just as the words of the Scripture themselves which are used in the liturgy. It tends to translate human feelings before their terrifying, unexplainable or consoling destiny. It represents the idea of peace, of Faith, and of Hope.“