The John F. Kennedy Requiem: Lyric Symphony In Song, was composed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, with two pieces dating from the late 80’s. The Requiem consists of fifteen independent pieces for voice and orchestra. A number of these were originally composed for other purposes and were later incorporated into the Requiem. The Requiem as an independent work began to take shape in 1982 with the composition of new sections specifically for that purpose, while text was created for some previously solely instrumental works. This recording was first created in 1989 and 1990 in Boston at Baker Street Studios. The piano tracks were laid down as a guide only, and then the voices were added. Soprano Rivka Isachar performed all the female parts, some overdubbed for multiple voices. The centerpiece of the Requiem, "Ice and Blackness" (originally composed as "Ice and Desire" as an instrumental piece dedicated to a young pianist at Berklee in 1978) was recorded for bass voice, but the unsatisfactory nature of that recording led the composer to use an alternative recording by Isachar. Between the difficulties of range and unpleasant eccentricities in tempi, this piece was always the most problematic on this recording. The tenor arias were performed by Isaac Krieger, while the bass sections were done by Rene Miville. The bass on "The Stone" in the original piano/vocal recording was never satisfactory to the composer. When the orchestration was overlaid the composer decided to replace this vocal with an overdubbed choral effect with his own voice. Because this was the only ‘new’ vocal at the time of the orchestration, the piano was able to be excised.

Around 1993 the composer began to envision the substance of the opera Spirit Fire. "Africa" and "Evening Star" had been recently composed for this project, which were then recorded with digital orchestration in late 1993 and early 1994. This was the first experiment in this area for the composer, conducted at the studio of Steve McLean in Portland. These massive but unruly works convinced the composer that he should first orchestrate the Requiem before tackling Spirit Fire, especially since no vocalists were on the scene willing to sing this music. In fact, both "Africa" and "Evening Star" were recorded with vocals by the composer. These tracks remain as the beginning and first solo of "Africa" in Spirit Fire. The version of "Evening Star" is identical instrumentally, while the composer’s vocal version is buried somewhere in a haphazard collection of digital tapes. The composer worked intermittently on the Requiem orchestrations throughout 1995 and 1996. Unfortunately there was no practical means to use the original vocal tracks from the multitrack tapes, only the final stereo mix of those recordings, which included the piano. Thus the piano track remains on this recording, occasionally complementary but mostly annoying. The orchestrations themselves, tackled on occasional evenings after exhausting days of courtroom practice, were somewhat magical, especially considering the random way they were created, layered almost blindly one instrument on top of another. This essential improvisation was later reduced to a systematic orchestration for small orchestra in 2004.

This composition had always been conceived of for chorus and large orchestra. Certainly there are some choral effects on this recording, as well as some large instrumental sound. There are some very beautiful vocal performances on this recording, most notably the duet "Triumph Into Time," "Jasmine," "Truth Eternity," "Light and Love," "The Struggle," and "Creation’s Mystic Light." The composer became disenchanted with this recording fairly quickly, however, perhaps assisted by the deafening apathy which greeted its creation. Soon the work as a whole was discounted and cast aside. It was not until the Summer of 2004 that the inspiration was born to resurrect this work which so greatly deserves to live and breathe.