Beginning the day with the sins of the world

I woke to the words peccata mundi ‘the sins of the world’ playing from my iTunes. Well, not bad at all, because this is the end of the phrase qui tollis peccata mundi ‘who takes [or taketh] away the sins of world’ (from the Latin Mass), so it was a kind of morning cleansing.

The Agnus Dei from Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, the “Trinitatis Mass”, K. 167 (written in Salzburg in 1773, while Mozart was still a teenager).

I have a “mix disc” compilation of versions of the Agnus Dei, ranging considerably over times and styles. The playlist, each entry giving:

track title – performers – album title – composer

1 Agnus Dei – The Boston Camerata – Nueva España – Tomás Luis De Victoria

2 Agnus Dei from The Misse Ave Regina – The Boston Camerata – Nueva España – Juan García de Zespiedes

3 Part II. No. 22 Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God – Academy & Chorus Of St Martin In The Fields – Messiah – Handel

4 Agnus Dei from Requiem, K. 626 – Gardiner: English baroque soloists, Bonney, Von Otter. Blochwitz, White, Monteverdi choir – Mozart

5 Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi (Paukenmesse) – Bernstein – NY Philharmonic – Missa in tempore belli – Haydn

6 Mass in D, Op.123 “Missa Solemnis”: Agnus Dei – Gundula Janowitz – Beethoven: Missa Solemnis – Beethoven

7 Requiem, Op.5 (Grande Messe des Morts): Agnus Dei – Wandsworth School Boys Choir – Berlioz: Requiem etc . – Hector Berlioz

8 Agnus Dei – King’s Consort: King, Sampson, Summers, Tortise, Foster-Williams, Cooper, Halls, Williams – Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle – Giachino Rossini

9 Messa da Requiem: Agnus Dei – Dame Joan Sutherland – Verdi: Requiem – Giuseppe Verdi

10 Anon: Agnus Dei: Virtute Numinis – Anonymous 4 – An English Ladymass – Anonymous

11 Mass: Agnus Dei – Robert Craft – Stravinsky: Mass / Cantata / Symphony Of Psalms (Stravinsky, Vol. 6) – Stravinsky

12 XV. Agnus Dei (Voice) – Leonard Bernstein – Bernstein: Mass – Leonard Bernstein

13 Agnus Dei – Rufus Wainwright – Want Two – Rufus Wainwright

 

4 Responses to “Beginning the day with the sins of the world”

  1. Robert Coren Says:

    What, no Bach B minor?

    • arnold zwicky Says:

      I was really hoping that nobody would complain about which Agnus Deis I included and which I omitted. The collections were space-limited; they had to fit on a not very large disc. And they were designed to provide a variety of examples. And to suit my tastes, not to make some music-historical point.

      I’m sure you would have chosen other Agnus Deis, more to your taste. Why don’t you make your own disc, to suit those tastes?

      • Robert Coren Says:

        That was really intended to be an expression of surprise, not a complaint. Apologies.

  2. chrishansenhome Says:

    I would have added PDQ Bach’s “Angus Dei” to that list, simply for a little light relief.

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