Lamb of God

I mentioned in an earlier post how tricky it can be to find choral works which connect in some way to the lectionary text of the day.

Not so this week. There are thousands of pieces which relate - and probably 99% of them have the same text:

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 is to say,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

We have before us the story of Abraham and Isaac. The key part of text, at least for these musical purposes, is Genesis 22:8 - Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." It presages John the Baptist's remark when he first spied Jesus, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). And those are the sources for our text.

The text was a Syrian custom introduced into the Roman rite by Pope Sergius I (can you believe - there were four Popes named "Sergius?"). Sergius (c.650-701) was born to a Syrian family who settled in Sicily. He added the text to the Fraction of the mass - that moment when the bread is broken by the priest. He did this in protest against the Quinisext Council, which forbade the worship of Christ as the Lamb of God.

The Quinisext Council didn't garner rave reviews - "reprobate synod" and "erratic council" were the more family-friendly terms used to describe it. The text stayed in.

We'll be presenting the text - or a portion of it, anyway (see below) - as set by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594).

From Wiki:

Palestrina was born in the town of Palestrina, near Rome, then part of the Papal States. Documents suggest that he first visited Rome in 1537, when he is listed as a chorister at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica. He spent most of his career in the city.

Palestrina came of age as a musician under the influence of the northern European style of polyphony, which owed its dominance in Italy primarily to two influential Franco-Flemish composers, Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez, who had spent significant portions of their careers there. Italy itself had yet to produce anyone of comparable fame or skill in polyphony.

Polyphony is a style of music with 2 or more independent lines of melody. This distinguishes it from our more familiar homophonic style, with its one melody and chords.

Palestrina's particular brand of polyphony is called Imitative Counterpoint - the voices enter at different times, singing the same music (though sometimes with variations). You'll hear this quite clearly in the Choir's presentation.

About that "portion" of the text comment: In this particular mass (Missa Aeterna Christi Munera - Mass for the Eternal Gifts of Christ), Palestrina divided the Agnus Dei into 2 parts. The first part, Agnus Dei I, is in 4-part harmony (SATB) and sets the text Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. The second part, Agnus Dei II (what else?), is in 5 parts (SATBB) and sets the last line, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem. It's this second portion we'll be singing Sunday.

You can hear the entire Agnus Dei here - Agnus Dei II starts at about 2:08.

The mass (one of 104 Palestrina is known to have composed) was written in 1590 - one of 7 masses he created that year. It's known as a paraphrase mass - a method of creating large structures based on a single tune, in this case the hymn, Aeterna Christi Munera, which is attributed to (though with a measurable degree of uncertainty) to St. Ambrose (c.340-397), who is credited with being the Father of Christian Hymnody.

I should probably mention that Palestrina didn't write for SATB and SATBB choirs; women were not included in the choirs of the day, so the arrangements were TTBB and TTBBB - and in a different key from what we'll do. Still, the music has beautiful lines and almost shimmering textures - hallmarks of Palestrina's style.

One last thing: Palestrina died in 1594 on Groundhog's Day, Old Style. I don't really think that means anything.