Fauré's reasons for composing his Requiem are uncertain. One possible impetus may have been the death of his father in 1885, and his mother's death two years later, on New Year's Eve 1887. However, by the time of his mother's death he had already begun the work, about which he later declared, "My Requiem wasn't written "for" anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that!" The earliest composed music included in the Requiem is the "Libera me", which Fauré wrote in 1877 as an independent work.