Agnus Dei (Barber) Agnus Dei (Barber) Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is a choral composition in one movement by Samuel Barber, his own arrangement of his "Adagio for Strings" (1936). In 1967, he set the Latin words of the liturgical Agnus Dei, a part of the Mass, for mixed chorus with optional organ or piano accompaniment. The music, in B-flat minor, has a duration of about eight minutes. Barber's "Adagio for Strings" began as the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936. At the request of Arturo Toscanini, he arranged it for string orchestra, and in January 1938 sent
Agnus Dei (Barber) for a solo soprano. Soprano and alto are divided in two parts, tenor and bass occasionally even in three. The music is dominated by a melody, first presented by the soprano, which begins on a long note and then undulates in even rhythm and diatonic steps, a melisma of two measures on the words "Agnus Dei". The other voices enter half a measure later on a chord, move to a different chord in measure 2 and sustain it throughout the measure, while the soprano holds its first note through measure one and moves only after the supporting chord has changed