Agnus Dei - Classical Music For Reflection And Mediation

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8556701

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099670128

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: AGNUS DEI - CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR REFLECTION AND MEDIATION

Description
Agnus Dei The Agnus Dei, the acclamation addressed to Christ, the Lamb of God, forms part of the Ordinary of the Mass. That is to say, it is part of the Mass that does not change, except for the slight modifications used in the Requiem Mass. As a relatively unchanging, repeated element in the liturgy, it has been a necessary part of musical settings, whether as plainchant or in the varying styles of later generations. The words of the Agnus Dei in the Latin Mass form a threefold acclamation: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccala mundi, miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccala mundi, miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccala mundi, dona nobis pacem.Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace. This is placed in the liturgy between the Fraction, the priest's breaking of bread, and the Communion, a sacred moment in the service. It seems, however, to be a later addition to the Mass, dating from the seventh century and designed to accompany what at one time was a much longer part of the rite. The relative clause, qui tollis peccata mundi, has the features expected of a trope, an addition to the liturgy that might be replaced, on other occasions, by different attributions, as in the Kyrie eleison. Any irregularity of this kind was largely removed in the Western liturgy by the standardizing reforms of the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. The present collection begins with music taken from the later sixteenth century, a period that found polyphonic practice at its height. Here the greatest composers were Palestrina, Lassus and Victoria, closely matched by the Englishman William Byrd, a recusant who lacked the opportunities offered by Catholic countries for public liturgical composition. Palestrina, his name taken from his probable place of birth, worked largely in Rome, at first at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, then, after a time spent in Palestrina itself, at the Cappella Giulia under Pope Julius III, followed by promotion to the Cappella Sistina. The tightening of regulations on the celibacy of singers at the Sistine Chapel under Pope Paul IV led to employment at St John Lateran, He subsequently returned to Santa Maria Maggiore and finally to the Cappella Giulia from 1571 until his death in 1594. His Missa Papae Marcelli, for Pope Marcellus II who reigned briefly in 1555, has been popularly held to have saved polyphonic church music by demonstrating the necessary textual clarity in a polyphonic context. There had been earlier discussion of the matter, which later received the fuller attention of the Council of Trent. Orlande de Lassus, otherwise known as Orlando di Lasso, was born in Hainault in 1532 and as a boy seems to have been employed as a chorister by a member of the Gonzaga family, rulers
Tracklisting