Agnus Dei (music)
Agnus Dei, referring to the Christian theological concept the Lamb of God, and the associated liturgical text from the Roman Catholic Latin Mass has been set to music by many composers, as it is normally one of the movements or sections in a sung Mass setting.[1][2] However, sometimes it stands alone, e.g., it provides the lyrics for Agnus Dei, the choral arrangement of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.
Based upon John the Baptist's reference in John 1:29 to Jesus ("Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world"), the text in Latin is:
- Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
- Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
- Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
which means:
- Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
- Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
- Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
The text is also part of the use of Agnus Dei in liturgy.
Examples
Some examples from full mass settings include:
- Movement 5 of John Rutter's Requiem;
- The fifth movement of the Notre Dame Mass;
- The twenty fourth movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor;
- The sixth part of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem;
- The tenth part of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis;
- The fifth movement of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem;
- The sixth movement of Franz Schubert's Mass No. 2.
- The fifth movement of Bob Chilcott's Little Jazz Mass
Samuel Barber arranged his Adagio for Strings as Agnus Dei
Elliot Goldenthal used the text in the score for Alien 3
Michael W. Smith recorded it as a Contemporary Christian worship song in 1990.
An arrangement, Megalith-Agnus Dei, was used in the game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies on the final mission called Megalith.
In the Assassin's Creed series, Elitsa Alexandrova used it in the Ubisoft's 2014 video game Assassin's Creed Rogue.