To begin with this week I’m bringing back some material that I wrote two years ago about the Mozart Requiem. Hey, we’re all in favor of recycling, aren’t we? I was struck by Rutter’s choice to put two sheep- or lamb-related sections together; the “Agnus Dei” from the Latin Mass and Psalm 23 as it is worded in the Book of Common Prayer.
So here’s what I wrote about the “Agnus Dei” back then:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi-–
“Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”
And the answer is: an arch. We all know about Roman arches, don’t we? The architectural point, which ties in with the musical point, is that there are matching stones on each side of the arch, each one bending closer and closer to the center, with the top stone, the one that holds it all in place, called the “key stone.” Without that center stone that whole thing collapses.
So I had read in several places that the Rutter Requiem had this arch form with the “Sanctus” serving as the keystone. But after all, that idea may just be something
Talk about a wealth of material! I’m going to talk about John Rutter himself and his writing of our piece and then branch out into the meaning of the text in a couple of followup ones. I’d encourage you to follow the link at the end to some earlier material (including some words from the great man himself via Facebook) that I wrote when we sang the Gloria.
First, a little background about the British music scene at the time of the Gloria. While Rutter had published the Christmas carol “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol” (which the Chorale has sung, although it’s better known to us it as “On the Way to Bethlehem”) at the age of 18, he wasn’t very well known in the UK music world even as he produced a number of other Christmas carols. “Difficult though it is to believe today, back in the 1960s and 70s the UK’s musical establishment was so polarized by the latest contemporary fads and fancies that Rutter’s exceptional talent went largely unremarked.”