Agnus Dei (music) taketh away the sin of the world"): In a Requiem Mass, the words "" are replaced by "" (grant them rest), while "" is replaced by "" (grant them eternal rest). Some examples from full mass settings include: Further examples are too numerous to name, as virtually every setting of the Mass Ordinary or Proper (of which there are thousands) includes an Agnus Dei. The text has also been used by composers for arrangements in popular culture, including: Agnus Dei (music) Agnus Dei, referring to the Christian theological concept of the Lamb of God and the associated liturgical text from
Mass for Four Voices the B flat strikingly changes to a B natural, producing an unexpected major chord at a key point in the music. A special feature of the mass (as also of the Five-Part Mass) is the final clause of the Agnus Dei. Although text-expression is not generally a feature of sixteenth-century Mass cycles, Byrd clearly regarded the ending of the Agnus Dei text ‘Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem’ as an opportunity for an expressive treatment of the words. He almost certainly identified ‘nobis’ as the persecuted Tudor Catholic community, as he had done with many of the