Agnus Dei (Barber)

Agnus Dei ( Lamb of God ) is a single-movement composition for mixed chorus by Samuel Barber. He edited in 1967 his Adagio for Strings (1938 ) on the Latin text of the Agnus Dei, the last part of the show. A performance of the piece in B flat minor for many part choir with optional accompaniment of organ or piano takes about eight minutes.

History

Barber's Adagio for Strings began as the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936. At the suggestion of Arturo Toscanini, he orchestrated it for strings, Toscanini conducted the premiere in 1938 in New York with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. As Barber adapted the work for choir, he changed the music of this version only slightly. Agnus Dei was published as other arrangements of the Adagio from G. Schirmer.

Music

Graham Olson turns out that the Adagio with sadness, longing, love and passion is connected, it ( sentimental romance ) summarizes as " sentimental romanticism ", while the choral work the spirituality of the work to the fore puts ( " Barber Brought to the surface the work 's sense of spirituality. "). He observed resemblance to works of the Renaissance of Palestrina and Gabrieli. The violinist Phillip Ying says of the original Quartet Movement: The score looks so clear like an exercise in counterpoint, and its strength lies in the economy of means. ("The score looks so clear, like a counterpoint exercise, and the power of it is in the economy of means. " )

Agnus Dei is in b minor, the tempo is indicated as "molto adagio " (very slow), Barber also wrote "molto espressivo " (very expressive ) and the beginning of "pp" ( pianissimo, very quiet). Initially, the clock is given as 4/2, but some of the 69 clocks are stretched to 5/2 and 6 / second The work is scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass ( SATB), all four voices are sometimes divided, the men's voices even up to three times. Cycles 12 to 14 are of a solo soprano to sing. The music is dominated by a melody which is first introduced by the soprano. It begins with a long note in the second bar and goes in a wave-like motion in small steps and uniform motion. In long melisma, the text " Agnus Dei " is developed over two cycles. The other voices set a one-half clock after the soprano, move in the second bar to another chord, which they consider the whole cycle over. Following a similar pattern, the words " qui tollis peccata mundi " are in bars 5 to 8 ( of you the sins of the world take ) designed with a downward course of the melody on " peccata mundi ". The repetition of the call " Agnus Dei " is a variation of the beginning, intensified through cracks in fifths and octaves. Then take over the old melody, " più f [locations ] semper espressivo " ( something stronger and more expressive ), while the soprano in a counter- melody for the first time " miserere nobis " ( have mercy on us ) sings. In bar 28 the bass takes over the melody, "p cresc. molto espressivo " (quiet but increasing, very expressive ), while the three upper voices sing undivided first " dona nobis pacem " ( grant us peace ). In bar 35 the tenor gets the melody, "with Increasing intensity" ( with increasing intensity), passes to the soprano, then alto in octaves, the soprano eventually leads to the climax on the words " dona nobis pacem ", in long chords fortissimo (very loud), at extreme altitude for all the votes, followed by a long pause general. After a slow silence repeated chord progression, the words in the lower register, thereby modulates to dominant matic keys like C major and F major. After another silence a kind of reprise of the opening, soprano and tenor begins to sing the melody in unison on " Agnus Dei dona nobis pacem ... " while alto and bass interject " miserere nobis ". In the last line of the Old slows down the beginning of the melody on " dona nobis pacem ", " mf molto espr. sost. " ( medium thickness, very expressive, held ), while the other voices with a very quiet" " end, " miserere nobis morendo " ( ersterbend ).

The piece takes about eight minutes. The accompaniment is only the support of the vocal parts and is optional.

Recordings

The Corydon Singers recorded the work in 1986, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and motets by Aaron Copland. The New College Choir, Oxford, took it on in 1997. 2000 saw the Choir of Ormond College is a compilation of Barber's choral music out. 2003 was the piece part of a collection The Best Of Barber, sung by the Robert Shaw Festival Singers. 2005 called The Sixteen a recording of American choral music for this work and characterized it as " lyrical traditionalism " ( lyrical traditionalism ). James Carson described in his review in the magazine Fanfare extended gradual crescendos that build up to shattering climaxes towards the end (extended gradual crescendos did build to shattering climaxes toward the end).