As it develops, reaching increasingly higher, we hear a single musical subject appear in one voice and then another. This persistent musical line seems to be communicating a message which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent. Listen to the joyful, sparkling string and woodwind lines and the quietly contented passages which follow here.
But the movement which follows evokes the serene peace of Venus. Opening with a solo horn line, Venus, the Bringer of Peace draws us into its colorful, placid, almost static world. He has a particularly wide-ranging catalogue of works, including choral works, symphonies, concerti, and opera. His searching and visionary imagination, combined with a flexibility in writing for all levels of music-making, has meant that his music is as popular today as it ever has been.
The cantata Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams was written at a time when the country was slowly awakening to the possibility of a second European conflict.
He prefaced this group of Whitman poems with a setting of the words of the Agnus Dei of the Latin Mass, and followed it with a passage from a speech given in Parliament by John Bright in at the time of the Crimean War. Vaughan Williams claimed to be the only composer ever to have set a passage from the proceedings of the House of Commons! In the last two sections he used a series of passages drawn from the Old Testament which together express optimism for future peace.
Dona Nobis Pacem was performed many times in that anxious period leading up to the Second World War, and given its connections with both World Wars it is again being taken up by choral societies throughout the country as we come to commemorate the outbreak of the First.
Agnus Dei , qui tollis peccata mundi , dona nobis pacem. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. The liturgical prayer known as the Agnus Dei is written in Latin. It is commonly used during Mass in the Roman Catholic Church and has been adapted into choral pieces by a number of history's best-known composers.
A Christian term for Jesus, first used in the Gospel of John. It carries out the image of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as a new Passover see also Passover : a lamb was killed for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus himself, in the sacrifice of his death and Resurrection, is the lamb for the new Passover. It is often referred to as Italianized or church Latin. Latin Pronunciation Agnus Dei qui tollis Ah-nyoos Deh-ee kwee tawl-lees peccata mundi peh-kah-tah moon-dee.
The Agnus Dei was originally a litany, in which the same text is repeated again and again.
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