Agnus Dei Essay

Music Literature 10:00am Zachery R. Swaim Agnus Dei was written in the height of the Renaissance, it exemplifies the Greco-Roman qualities that the time period was striving for such as spirituality and above all beauty. One of the goals of Renaissance music was showcasing the transcendental beauty of God so therefore the music was far removed from the earthy and rough rhythms of pagan celebrations. Pagan celebration music was made to dance to, oftentimes drunk, while at the other end of the spectrum, the music of the Renaissance was made to worship to, to sit and listen and soak in the awe-inspiring beauty of Gods love. Renaissance music sounds so fundamentally right to us, even if we listen to other genres such as pop, because of the use of triads. Almost all popular music since then uses harmonies based on triads; our ears are trained from birth to recognize these notes. The use of triads and the major and minor modes were just one of the many things that composers borrowed from the Greeks and Romans. The Renaissance was not just a time of rebirth for art and music; it was also a time of immense spirituality and Christianity. Most of the works of art from the time period be they a musical composition, a painting, or even sculpture, exemplified Christian theology and told stories from the Bible. Many techniques were used to convey Christianity and the awesome love of God in these works of art, but focusing on the composition Agnus Dei in particular the composers text had natural stress on certain words such as God, sin, and mercy. These words, especially God, were the highest notes in the piece, often leaping from a lower note. The composition is much less melismatic which cause the piece as a whole to feel much less cluttered and lets the openness and beauty flow through the text. That is not to say that the piece has no melisma but when it does the embellishments are on the word God, once again reinforcing that this a piece of music created specifically to worship and praise Him.