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Howard Goodall composed Eternal Light: A Requiem in 2008 as a commission for London Musici to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Goodall decided in his setting to concentrate on the suffering of those who had lost loved ones, rather than on the traditional theme of purgatory and judgement awaiting the dead. He achieved this by adding secular English poems such as Ann Thorp's Belief and a gentle, melodic setting of John Henry Newman's Lead Kindly Light, while leaving the skeleton of the Latin texts as a structure.
In Goodall’s own words, "This, like Brahms’, is a Requiem for the living, addressing their suffering and endurance, a Requiem focussing on the consequences of interrupted lives."
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