Agnus Dei (liturgy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fractio panis rite at which the Agnus Dei is sung or said

In the Mass of the Roman Rite and also in the Eucharist of the Anglican Communion,
the Lutheran Church, and the Western Rite of the Orthodox Churchthe Agnus Dei is the
invocation to the Lamb of God sung or recited during the fraction of the Host.[1]

History[edit]
The Syrian custom of a chant addressed to the Lamb of God was introduced into the Roman
Rite Mass by Pope Sergius I(687701)[2][3] in the context of his rejection of the Council of
Trullo (692), which was well received in the Byzantine East and called the Quinisext Council,
but whose canons had forbidden the iconographic depiction of Christ as a lamb instead of a
man.[4]

Chant[edit]
See also: Agnus Dei (music) and Mass ordinary V. Agnus Dei

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 used in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Church (Rite
Two) is:
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.[5]
The following three versions are all found in the Church
of England's Common Worship liturgical resources, and
also in the Episcopal Church's liturgical resources:
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.
Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, bearer of our sins, have mercy on us.
Jesus, redeemer of the world, grant us peace.
The version found
in the Lutheran
Service Book of
the Lutheran
Church-Missouri
Synod is:
Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; grant us Your peace, grant us Your
peace.
The
Gene
ral
Instru
ction
of the
Roma
n
Missa
l,
83,
states
: "The
suppli
cation
Agnu
s Dei,
is, as
a
rule,
sung
by the
choir
or
canto
r with
the
congr
egatio
n
respo
nding;
or it
is, at
least,
recite
d
aloud.
This
invoc
ation
acco
mpani
es the
fractio
n
and,
for
this
reaso
n,
may
be
repea
ted as
many
times
as
neces
sary
until
the
rite
has
reach
ed its
concl
usion,
the
last
time
endin
g with
the
words
dona
nobis
pace
m
(grant
us
peace
)."
In Tri
dentin
e Req
uiem
Mass
es,
the
first
two
invoc
ations
ende
d with
"dona
eis
requi
em"
(give
them
rest)
instea
d of
"mise
rere
nobis
", and
the
last
with
"dona
eis
requi
em
sempi
terna
m"
(give
them
rest
etern
al).
The
Agnu
s Dei
is part
of
nearly
all
settin
gs by
comp
osers
of
sung
mass
es.

Oth
er
use
s[edi
t]
The
priest
again
uses
the
phras
e
"Lam
b of
God",
in a
more
compl
ete
quota
tion
from
John
1:29,
when
displa
ying
the
conse
crate
d
Host
(or
the
Host
and
Chali
 ce) to
the
peopl
e
befor
e
giving
them
Holy
Com
munio
n. He
says:
"Ecce
Agnu
s Dei,
ecce
qui
tollit
pecca
ta
mundi
.
Beati
qui ad
cena
m
Agni
vocati
sunt"
(Beho
ld the
Lamb
of
God,
behol
d him
who
takes
away
the
sins
of the
world.
Bless
ed
are
those
called
to the
suppe
r of
the
Lamb
).[6]
What is the Agnus Dei?
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.
Who is the writer of the song Agnus Dei?
Samuel Barber
Who sings Agnus Dei?
Michael W. Smith
What does the Latin word Dei mean?
The name Amadeus translates to "for love of God". The
genitive/dative dei occurs in such phrases as Roman Catholic organization
Opus Dei (work of God), Agnus Dei(Lamb of God) and Dei Gratia (By the Grace
of God).
What is the meaning of Agnus?
Agnus [ag-nus] as a girls' name is a Greek name, and the meaning of Agnus is
"pure, holy". Agnus is an alternate form of Agnes (Greek). ASSOCIATED WITH
greek, pure (virgin)
Who is Agnus Dei?
Agnus Dei, referring to the Christian theological concept of 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.
What religion is Michael W Smith?
Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American musician, who
has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest
success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in this World" hit No. 6
on the Billboard Hot 100.
Who is the Lamb of God?
Lamb of God (Greek: , Amnos tou Theou; Latin: Agnus Dei) is a
title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29,
where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world."
What is DEI stand for?
DEI is a three-letter acronym. It may refer to one of the following: DEI, Greek
national electrical company. FIFA Trigramme for Dutch East Indies. Dale
Earnhardt, Inc., a NASCAR team.
Why is Jesus often referred to as the Lamb of God?
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God brought the perfect sacrifice that
John proclaimed: "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!" (John 1:29). ... Think about this: All the sacrificial lambs offered in the Old
Testament point to Jesus Christ.
What is the symbolism of a lamb?
The lamb is the symbol of purity and innocence; its sacrifice restores the
balance of sin. ... The dichotomy here is that the sacrificial lamb from the Old
Testament was sacrificed for the sins of others, whereas Jesus knowingly
became the sacrificial offering for the world.

Agnus Dei (in Liturgy)

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A name given to the formula recited thrice by

the priest at Mass (except on Good Friday and Holy Saturday) in
the Roman rite. It occurs towards the end of the Canon, after
the prayer "Haec commixtio", etc. Having finished saying this prayer,
the priest covers the chalice with the pall, genuflects, rises, inclines his
head (but not his body) profoundly towards the altar and, with hands
joined before his breast (and not, therefore, resting on the altar), says
with a loud voice: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere
nobis" (Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have
mercy on us), repeats the formula unchanged, and still a third time,
substituting now "dona nobis pacem" (grant us peace) for "miserere
nobis", meanwhile striking his breast thrice, once at each "miserere
nobis" and once at "Dona nobis pacem", with the right hand (the left
hand resting throughout, from the first "Miserere", on the altar).
In Requiem Masses, however, the formula occurs at the same part of
the rite, but with the substitution of "dona eis requiem" (grant them
rest) for "miserere nobis", and of "dona eis requiem sempiternam"
(Grant them eternal rest) for "dona nobis pacem." In this case,
the priest does not strike his breast, but keeps his hands joined before
his breast throughout the whole formula. These rubrical details are
given here for the reason that both the formula and
the ceremonial accompanying it have undergone various changes in
different ages and different places. Into the symbolic reasons for the
present practice it is not necessary to enter here.

Slightly changed in respect of one

word, peccata for peccatum (peccatum, however, appearing in other
sources, such as the Missal of Stowe and other Englishmanuscripts,
and in the Bangor Antiphonary), the formula appears to have been
directly taken from the very ancient chant of the "Gloria in excelsis."
In the text of the Roman and Ambrosian rites: "Agnus Dei, Filius
Patris, Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; Qui tollis peccata
mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram; Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,
miserere nobis", containing all the words of the original formula of
the Agnus Dei, we may find the immediate source of its text. Its
remoter source was the declaration of the Baptist: "Ecce Agnus Dei,
ecce Qui tollit peccatum mundi" (John 1:29), supplemented by the cry
of the two blind men (Matthew 9:27): "Miserere nostri, fili David."
The scriptural origin of the formula is therefore evident at a glance.
Its symbolism, however, is traced in the Apocalypse through the more
than thirty references to "the Lamb that was slain from the beginning
of the world" (13:8); "the blood of the Lamb" (xii, ii); "they that are
written in the book of life of the Lamb" (xxi, 27); and in the following:
v, 6, 8, 12, 13; vi, 1, 16; vii, 9, 10, 14, 17; xiv, 1, 4,10; xv 3; xvii,
14; xix, 7, 9; xxi, 9, 14, 22, 23, 27; xxii, 1, 3, 14. From
the Apocalypse we trace it backward to the First Epistle of St. Peter (i,
19): "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and
undefiled"; to the perplexed reading of the eunuch of Queen
Candace (Acts 8:32-33): "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and
like a lamb without voice before his shearer, so openeth he not his
mouth. . .;" and thus finally to the
great Messianic chapter of Isaias (53:7-12), which formed the subject
of the eunuch's query: "I beseech thee, of whom doth
the prophet speak this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip,
opening his mouth and beginning at this scripture, preached unto
him Jesus" (Acts 8:34-35). While Isaias compared Our Saviour to
a lamb, the Baptist was the first actually to bestow this name
upon Our Lord ("Behold the Lamb of God"), and doubtless with a
determinate sense derived from ancient type and prophecy.
The Christian mind willrecall such instances in the Old Testament as
the Paschal Lamb of the Jews, "without blemish, a male, of one year"
(Exodus 12:5), whose blood, sprinkled on the door-posts,
should save from the Destroying Angel a figure of
the Immaculate Lamb whose blood was to conquer death and to open
to men the trueLand of Promise; and also the perpetual offering of
a lamb morning and night (Exodus 29:38, 39) a figure of the
perpetual sacrifice of the altar in the New Dispensation. To
the ideas of immaculate purity, gentleness, atoning,
and eucharistic sacrifice, the Baptist adds that of universality of
purpose: "Who taketh away the sins of the world", and not alone
of Israel. From the Baptist the other Johncaught the fullness of
the symbolism and repeated it in the fourth and fifth chaptersof
the Apocalypse in such a way as to foreshadow the splendours of
the SolemnMass the Lamb upon the altar as upon a throne; the
attendant clergy as four-and-twenty ancients seated, clothed in
white vestments; the chanting of the "Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus";
the incense arising from golden censers, and the music of harps; and
then, as by a sudden change, in the midst of all "a Lamb standing as it
were slain" (v, 6). Naturally, the symbolism of types and figures of
the Old Testament, the Messianic prophecy of Isaias, the declaration of
the Baptist, the mystical revelations of the Apocalypse, were early
commemorated in the morning hymn of the "Gloria in excelsis", which
was originally a part of the office of Matins. In a slightly
different form it is found in the "Apostolic Constitutions" and in the
appendixes to the Bible in the "Codex Alexandrinus" of the fifth
century. It first appears in use at Rome, appropriately, in the
first Mass of the Nativity. Pope St. Symmachus (498-514) extended its
use in episcopal Masses. The distinct and condensed formula of
the Agnus Dei itself, however, was not apparently introduced into
the Mass until the year 687, when Pope Sergius I decreed that during
the fraction of the Host both clergy and people should sing the Agnus
Dei: "Hic statuit ut tempore confractionis dominici corporis Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis, a clero et a populo
decantetur" (Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, I, 381, note 42).
Duchesne, accepting the view of Sergius's reason propounded
by Cardinal Bona, says: "il n'est pas defendu de voir, dans
ce dcret de Sergius, une protestation contre le canon 82 du concile in
Trullo, qui proscrivit la representation symbolique du Sauveur sous
forme d'agneau".

In the Liturgy of St. James, the priest when signing the Bread, shortly
before communicating himself, says: "Behold the Lamb of God,
the Son of the Father, who taketh away the sin of the
world, sacrificed for the life and salvation of the world." The formula is
thus said but once. At about the same part of the Mass in the
present Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the priest divides
the Holy Bread into four parts, "with care and reverence" (in the
language of the rubric) and says: "The Lamb of God is broken and
distributed; He that is broken and not divided in sunder; ever eaten
and never consumed, but sanctifying the communicants"
(Neale, History of the Holy Eastern Church, Introduction, 650). These
words are absent, however, from the ancient Mass of the Saint (ninth
century). In the Office of Prothesis (a sort of preparatory Mass, dealing
with the preparation of the "Holy Bread", or "Holy Lamb", as it is
called) now in use, the prophecy of Isaias is more minutely referred to
in the ceremonial; and finally, the deacon, laying the "Lamb" down in
the disk, says to the priest: "Sir, sacrifice"; to which the priest, while
cutting it crosswise, answers: "The Lamb of God is sacrificed, Who
taketh away the sin of the word, for the life and salvation of the world"
(Neale, loc. cit., 343, 344). While it is true that, unlike several
other liturgies, the Roman contains no longer any chant for the
fraction of the Host, the Agnus Dei, although not properly
a prayer therefor, occupies the void sufficiently well; and, more
condensed than that of St. James, and quite different from that of St.
Chrysostom, quoted above, it appears in the RomanMass with all the
symmetry of ceremonial and of appropriate symbolism possible to
a liturgy.

The words of the "Liber Pontificalis" (a clero et a populo decantetur)

suggest the question whether previously the formula had been sung by
the choir alone, as Mabillon infers, and as was the case in the ninth
century and in the time of Innocent III (d. 1216). Originally the
celebrant did not recite it himself, as his other functions sufficiently
occupied his attention; but certainly by the thirteenth century the
introduction of this feature must have become
common, Durandus noting that some priests recited it with their hands
resting on the altar, others with hands joined before the breast.

Originally, too, recited or sung but once, Martene shows that its triple
recitation was prescribed in some churches for example, in that
of Tours, before the year 1000; and Jean Beleth, a canon of Paris,
writing in the twelfth century, remarks: "Agnus Dei ter canitur". About
the same time the custom was introduced of substituting "dona nobis
pacem" for the third "miserere nobis"; although by way of exception,
the third "miserere" was said on Holy Thursday (perhaps because on
that day the "kiss of peace" is not given). A sufficient reason for the
substitution of "dona nobis pacem" might be found in its
appropriateness as a preparation for the "kiss of peace" (the Pax)
which follows, although Innocent III ascribes its introduction to
disturbances and calamities affecting the Church. The Lateran Basilica,
however, retains the ancient custom of the triple "miserere". No trace
of the Agnus Dei is found in the Roman Mass of the Missal of Bobbio,
or in that of Stowe; nor is it found in the Mozarabic, the Gelasian,
or Ambrosian (except in Ambrosian Requiem Masses, where it occurs
with triple invocation, as in the Roman Missal, but adds to the
third invocation the words "et locum indulgentiae cum sanctis tuis
in gloria").

It has been said above that the Agnus Dei now follows
the prayer "Haec commixtio". It preceded that prayer, however, in so
many manuscripts of the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, that
one liturgist looks on the formula as the ordinary conclusion of
the Canon of the Mass in the Middle Ages.

As in the case of the "Kyrie eleison" and other texts of the Ordinary of
the Mass(e.g. the Gloria, Sequence, Credo, Sanctus, Hosanna, Ite,
missa est), the words of the Agnus Dei were often considerably
extended by tropes, styled by the Romans(In ignorance, perhaps, of
their Greek origin) Festivae Laudes. These additions were prefaces, or
intercalations, or concluding sentences or phrases, sometimes bearing
a strict connection with the meaning of the text, sometimes
constituting practically individual compositions with only a titular
relation to the text. Cardinal Bona gives an interesting one:

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,

Crimina tollis, aspera molis, Agnus honoris,
Miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Vulnera sanas, ardua planas, Agnus amoris,
Miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Sordida mundas, cuncta foecundas, Agnus odoris,
Dona nobis pacem.

The Cardinal does not mention the date of his source; but the poem is
given by Blume and Bannister in their "Tropi Graduales" [Analecta
Hymnica (Leipzig, 1905), XLVII, 398], with
several dated manuscript references. This splendid collectioncontains
no fewer than ninety-seven tropes of the Agnus Dei alone. The
following trope of the tenth century will illustrate another form, of
which there are many examples, in classical hexameters:

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,

Omnipotens, aeterna Dei Sapientia, Christe,
miserere nobis, Agnus Dei. . .peccata mundi,
Verum subsistens veo de lumine lumen,
miserere nobis. Agnus Dei. . .peccata mundi,
Optima perpetuae concedens gaudia vitae,
dona nobis pacem.

Sometimes the tropes were not in measure, whether classical or

accentual, but merely in a rude kind of rhymed, or
rather, assonantal prose; as the following (tenth century), which was
the triple "miserere nobis" instead of "dona. . ." etc.:

1. Agnus Dei. . .peccata mundi,

Omnipotens, pie,
te precamur assidue,
miserere nobis.
2. Agnus Dei. . .peccata mundi,
Qui cuncta creasti,
Nobis semper (te) adiunge,
miserere nobis.
3. Agnus Dei. . .peccata mundi,
Redemptor, Christe,
Exoramus te supplices,
miserere nobis.

Sometimes they were very brief, sometimes extensive, as the following (of
which space will allow but one strophe) of the thirteenth century:

1. Agnus Dei,
Sine peccati macula
 solus permanens
cuncta per saecula,
nostra crimina dele,
qui tollis peccata mundi;
Haec enim gloria soli
Domino est congrua;
Miserere nobis.

Two other uses of the Agnus Dei may be mentioned briefly. First, before
giving Holy Communion, whether during or outside of Mass, the priest holds
a particle up for the faithful to see, saying: "Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit
peccata mundi. Domine non sum dignus", etc. The use of the formula in this
connection appears to be of comparatively recent date. Anciently the formula
used was simply "Corpus Christi", "Sanguis Christi", to which
the faithful answered "Amen", a formula similar to that in the Liturgy of St.
Mark: "The Holy Body" "The precious Blood of Our Lord and God and
Saviour". Secondly, at the end of litanies the formula appears as follows:
"Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, Parce nobis, Domine" (Spare us,
O Lord). "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, Exaudi nos, Domine"
(Graciously hear us, O Lord). "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere
nobis" (Have mercy on us). Thus, for the litanies of the Saints and for that
of Loreto. The litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus adds the word Jesu to
the last word, and substitutes Jesu for Domine in the previous two endings.
In the so-called "Litania Romana", found in an
old manuscript sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, the formula appears
but once, and then in the words of the formula used at Mass: "Agnus Dei. .
.mundi, miserere nobis". The use of the formula in litanies is of
comparatively recent date.

It remains to say a word about the musical settings of the Agnus Dei
in the Mass. Originally, of course, the melody was plainsong, doubtless
very simple and syllabic at first, and subsequently developed into
richer forms. Recent studies in musical palaeography have succeeded
in rescuing the ancient melodies from oblivion, and in
the Vatican "Kyriale" (1905) we find twenty
settings substantially reproducing the ancient texts. These melodies
range from the syllabic up through various grades of the florid into
moderately melismatic chants. A rough idea of the melodic forms may
be gained by considering that there are eighteen syllables of text in
any one of the three invocations, and that the number of notes
accompanying any one of these invocations of eighteen syllables
ranges from nineteen (in which case only one syllable of the text can
receive two notes) up to sixty-one (as in No. V of the "Kyriale"). In No.
V the first syllable has nine notes, however; and a mere enumeration
of notes is not sufficiently descriptive of the character and flow of the
melody, although such enumeration will help towards forming
an idea of the melodic richness or poverty. The familiar melody of
the Requiem Mass Agnus Dei, with its twenty notes to eighteen
syllables, will illustrate a purely syllabic chant, and will serve to explain
its assignment to days of penitential character, such as the ferial
days in Lent and Advent, Ember and rogation days, and vigils, to
which the "Kyriale" nominally assigns it. With respect to the variety of
melody offered in the triple invocation, we find six masses (nos. I, V,
VI, XVIII, XIX, XX) in which the melody remains the same for all
three invocations a form which might be indicated as a, a, a; twelve
masses in which the melody of the first and third Agnus Dei are
identical, but the second different type a, b, a; one mass in which
the first two are identical, while the third varies type a, a, b; and
one mass in which all three are different (No. VII) type a, b, c.
In type a, b, a, however, many correspondences of melody
between a and b are found in certain potions of the text; while
in type a, b, c, the melody of "nobis" is common to all three. In all this
we can perceive the operation of excellent ideas of symmetry
and form amid great variety of melody. The plainsong melodies of
the Agnus Dei (as, indeed, of other chants as well,
the Kyries exhibiting similar obvious symmetries, while the more
melismatic chants of the Proper of the Mass will, under
enlightened analysis, yield surprisingly beautiful results) are
illustrations of the fact that the ancient composers, although working
under very different conceptions of music from those which obtain in
our days, had clear perceptions of the province of form in musical art,
and had canons of construction and criticism which we have not as
yet, in all likelihood, fully appreciated [Wagner, "Einfuhrung in die
Gregorianischen Melodien" (Freiburg, Schweiz, 1895), 247-k also, in
the Philadelphia quarterly, "Church Music", June, 1906, 362-380, two
articles on the Introit: "Gaudeamus omnes in Domino", and March,
1906, 222-232, the article on the "Haec dies"].

The text of the Agnus Dei, triple in repetition, and,

therefore, possessing its own rights of textual symmetry, was
respected by the medieval composers; and the one facts which, in this
respect, discriminates their forms of treatment from those of the
master-composers of modern church music, is the absence of any
separate treatment of the "Dona nobis pacem", that grand finale
movement in which the moderns have been so accustomed to
assemble all their energies of technique, voices, and instruments, and
to which they assign a movement entirely different from the preceding
one. Familiar examples of this are found in Bach's great Mass in B-
minor, where the first two Agnus Deis are alto solos, followed by the
"Dona" in four-part fugue. Significant of the musical
and liturgical aloofness of the "Dona" from the Agnus Dei in this
composition, is the fact that no third Agnus Dei occurs at all.
In Beethoven's monumental Mass in D, solo and chorus sing the
"Agnus. . .novis" thrice adagio, the "Dona" forming a new movement
in allegretto vivace and requiring more than three times as many
pages as the thrice-repeated "Agnus"; so, too, in his Mass in C, the
"Dona", allegro ma non troppo, takes thrice as many pages as the
whole preceding text in poco andante. So, too Haydn's "Third"
("Dona", allegro vivace, twice as many pages as all the rest adagio);
his "First" ("Agnus", adagio, strings only "Dona", allegro, oboes,
trumpets, typani, and strings); his "Sixth" (Agnus", adagio, 3/4
"Dona", allegro con spirito, 4/4); his "Sixteenth" ("Agnus", adagio, 4/4
"Dona", allegro, 3/4, strings, clarinets, trumpets, tympani,
and organ). Illustrations might be multiplied without number from
other masses, of Mozart, Schubert, and the rest. A very interesting
exception is found in the masses of Gounod (quite naturally, in view of
his training and polyphonic studies), which respect the triple symmetry
of the text; and we find in his "Agnus" almost the
primitive plainsong symmetry. Thus, his second mass of the
"Orphonistes" gives us the type a, a, b; his first of the Orphonistes,
the type a, b, c (agreeing, curiously enough, with the single illustration
of that type in the "Kyriale", in having for the two "nobis" and the
"dona" the one musical formula); his "Sacred Heart Mass",
the type (with slight variations) a, b, a; his "St. Cecilia" (omitting the
interpolation of the "Domine non sum dignus," etc.), the type a, a,
a(with slight variation). Gounod's interpolation of "Domine non sum
dignus" has been very severely criticized as a great liturgical offence
and so it is; but it is additionally interesting to note, even there, an
echo of the medieval custom spoken of in the preceding part of this
article, of the trope-treatment of
the liturgical texts. Gounod's trope was built up out of his own fancy,
but was at least wholly liturgicalin the selection of the intercalated
text; it was also singularly appropriate to the portion of the Mass then
reached, namely, the Communion of priest or of people. Of the quasi-
dramatic treatments which the Agnus Dei has received in modern
times, it is not worth while to speak (e.g. Haydn's Mass in
tempore belli, Beethoven's in D, with the roll of drums accentuating
the blessings of peace in contrast with the horrors of war), or of the
treatments which have thoroughly disfigured, by omissions, insertions,
and additions of words, the beauty of the liturgical text; or have so
interposed the words as to make nonsense (e.g. Poniatowski's "Mass
in F" to select from the lesser order, which indiscriminately assigns
to each of the "Agnus. . .mundi" a confused jumble of "miserere" and
"dona" a conceit, the symbolism of which is not clearly intelligible).
In general, these liturgical excesses resulted from the
dramatic instinct working in the field of sacred music.

Agnus Dei (music)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

13th century carved Agnus Dei in ivory, Louvre.

Agnus Dei, referring to the Christian theological concept of 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.
 Contents
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1Text
2Examples
3See also
4References

Text[edit]
See also: Agnus Dei (liturgy)
The Agnus Dei is a setting of the "Lamb of God" litany, based on John the Baptist's
reference in John 1:29 to Jesus ("Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world"):
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
miserere nobis.
have mercy upon us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
miserere nobis.
have mercy upon us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
dona nobis pacem.
grant us peace.
In a Requiem Mass, the words "miserere nobis" are replaced
by "dona eis requiem" (grant them rest), while "dona nobis
pacem" is replaced by "dona eis requiem sempiternam" (grant them
eternal rest).

Examples[edit]
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Agnus Dei from Schubert's Mass No. 2

Some examples from full mass settings include:

The fifth movement of Guillaume de Machaut's Notre Dame

Mass
The twenty-fourth movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass
in B minor
The seventh part of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem
The tenth part of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis
The sixth movement of Franz Schubert's Mass No. 2
The sixth movement of Robert Schumann's Mass in C Minor,
Op. 147
The fifth part of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem
The fifth movement of Gabriel Faur's Requiem
Movement 5 of John Rutter's Requiem
The fifth movement of Bob Chilcott's Little Jazz Mass
The fifth movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mass in G
minor (Vaughan Williams)
The fifth movement of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, in
which the text is interleaved with Wilfred Owen's poem "At a
Calvary near the Ancre"
 Further examples are too numerous to name, as virtually every
setting of the Mass Ordinary or Proper (of which there are
thousands) includes an Agnus Dei. The text has also been used by
composers for arrangements in popular culture, including:

Elliot Goldenthal for Alien 3

Keiki Kobayashi for Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies
Elitsa Alexandrova for Assassin's Creed Rogue
Enya for the song Trains and Winter Rains
Halsey for the song Castle
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) soundtrack for episodes 17 and 18
Jon Bellion for Ooh

V. Agnus Dei[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Agnus Dei (music).
The Agnus Dei is a setting of the "Lamb of God" litany, containing the responses miserere
nobis (have mercy upon us), repeated twice, and dona nobis pacem (grant us peace) once
at the end.
In a Requiem Mass, the words "miserere nobis" are replaced by "dona eis requiem" (grant
them rest), while "dona nobis pacem" is replaced by "dona eis requiem sempiternam" (grant
them eternal rest).