The composition is essentially a funeral mass for the children who have died of AIDS-related
complications.
The intention, however, has not been to set a church service to music. As a result of this, the total form is loosely based on the John Rutter ‘Requiem’ with seven movements arranged symmetrically.
Also, as in the Requiems of Rutter, Lloyd-Webber & al who have followed the precedent set by Benjamin Britten in his ‘War Requiem’, texts other than only the Latin (and Greek) Catholic texts (or their vernacular translations) have been used; here specifically English and Sesotho texts.
The work tends to be dark, sombre and weighty – but then, so is the subject matter. Even so, it does not stay in a depressed morass but celebrates the hope of life eternal and a paradise where there is no more pain and sorrow, no more tears and illness, no more anguish and weeping.