Dan Forrest: Requiem for the Living: Movement III: Agnus Dei

Описание: This is the third movement of my arrangement and performance of Dan Forrest's 'Requiem for the Living'.

The Agnus Dei is traditionally a designation of Jesus Christ, a Latin chant, within liturgical Church music, based on John 1:29. In Dan's Requiem, the respective Sanctus and Agnus Dei are swapped from their traditional orders of movement. The Agnus Dei stands, therefore at the centre of this Requiem, as a plea to Jesus for deliverance.

The voicing, thus, is also different. The BBCSO plays a relatively small part. Instead Spitfire Audio's Appassionata Strings is used entirely, halving the ensemble size and putting emphasis on the intimacy, dynamic agility, and lyricism. This creates a very different, emotionally expressive, and romantic voicing for the movement that makes it unique from the other movements in its delivery. The soprano solo that traditionally leads the movement is also replaced by a violin solo.

The characteristics of romantic music that influenced this orchestration, include:

'a new preoccupation with the surrender to nature', and 'a turn towards the mystic and supernatural, both religious and unearthly'.

A few other inspirations for the voicing include Hans Zimmer's 'Burning Bush', and a lot of the emotional violin music prevalent on YouTube, but mainly Fantasy Meditations' 'Burning of Alexandria' video, which is in turn inspired by the tragic burning of the Library of Alexandria. This movement carries that same air of tragedy, but with a calming of the storm that characterises the loving nature of Christ in times of chaos, pain, sorrow, and indeed as is traditionally the case with Requiems, amidst the tragedy of death.

As usual, the text is given below:

Latin [sung]

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis, dona eis requiem.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona nobis pacem, miserere nobis,
dona eis requiem.

English [translation]:

Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us; grant them rest.
Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world,
grant us peace; have mercy on us; grant them rest.

Piece: Requiem for the Living
Movement III: Agnus Dei
Composer: Dan Forrest
Publisher: Hinshaw Music
Arrangement, Performance & Production: Jôvan Howell