Description
“Agnus Dei” was composed in 2011 to be included in Jocelyn’s requiem for chorus and orchestra Ashes of Roses. There are only two movements in the requiem in which an English text is set. This excerpt from Corinthians is extremely powerful and moving, ideal for a dramatic soloist, and set against the ostinato of the male voices. My requiem really centers around the idea of transformation. But more than that, it’s about transforming into lightness, into beauty. So many requiems focus on darkness and end somberly, but Ashes of Roses does not. It ends with a brightness, centering on the fact that we all someday transition into something beyond ourselves, and that should be celebrated.
Performed by Cantus.
Text
Agnus Dei,
Lamb of God,
qui tollis peccata mundi
who takes away the sin of the world
miserere nobis.
have mercy on us.
Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound
and the dead will be raised incorruptible.
Behold, I tell you a mystery:
and we shall be changed.
-Traditional Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead I Corinthians 15:51-52
