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
Missa Papae Marcelli effect. This was a new technique, using "tonal planning" to replace imitation as the means to keep the music moving forward. The Agnus Dei returns to the imitative polyphony of the Kyrie (the opening of Agnus Dei I repeats that of the Kyrie). As was frequently done in the 16th century, Palestrina adds an extra voice in Agnus Dei II, making seven for this movement, in which is embedded a three-part canon that begins with the head-motive. Missa Papae Marcelli Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass, is a mass "sine nomine" by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. It is his