Agnus Dei - Samuel Barber, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
20. 'Agnus Dei'
From the album ‘Images of Christ’
Composer Samuel Barber
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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Agnus Dei
This is a choral arrangement of Barber’s celebrated Adagio for Strings, itself an arrangement of the second movement of his String Quartet in B minor written in 1936. The string quartet version was written during an idyllic summer spent in Switzerland; perhaps aware that he had just composed the piece that would bring him fame and fortune, Barber wrote to a friend: ‘I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today—it is a knockout!’ He shortly afterwards made the orchestral string version and offered it to Toscanini, who premièred it in one of his national broadcasts in the USA in 1938 and thereafter performed it often, making a recording in 1942. The fame of the Adagio prompted many requests for rearranged versions. Barber himself made the choral arrangement in1967. Although it is unlikely that the Agnus Dei text had been in his mind when he wrote the string version, there is no doubt that its devotional character fits the music well.
LYRICS:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Dona nobis pacem.
(from the Ordinary of the Mass)
Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Grant us thy peace.
Images of Christ
Around the figure of Christ there has grown up over the centuries a body of choral literature that can only be described as among the most remarkable in western civilization. The music of this recording, all for a cappella choir, is grouped loosely according to the themes of its texts (The Coming of Christ, Words of Christ, The Passion of Christ, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ in the Eucharist), drawing together composers as far apart in time and space as 11th-century France; 20th-century Russia and America. The aim is not a liturgical reconstruction, nor an historical survey, but rather a journey of the imagination.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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