Rufus Wainwright Songs - Agnus Dei Lyrics

Rufus Wainwright - Agnus Dei

Rufus Wainwright - Agnus Dei Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Want Two
Released: 2004

Agnus Dei Lyrics

Agnus Dei
Agnus dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Agnus dei
Agnus dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona nobis pacem
Dona nobis pacem
Pacem
Dona nobis pacem

Translation:
Lamb of God
You who take away the sins of the world
Lamb of God
You who take away the sins of the world

Give us peace
Give us peace
Peace
Give us peace.

Writer/s: WAINWRIGHT, RUFUS
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Agnus Dei

The song's title and all of its lyrics are Latin. "Agnus Dei" is a movement from a mass (older composers write many of these) and literally means:
(Lamb of God) Agnus Dei
(qui tollis peccata mundi) who takes away the sins of the world
(dona nobis pachem) grant us peace.

In this song, Wainwright is asking for clemency from people who attack him and his music.

This is essentially a Classical song. It is a setting of the text of one movement from a mass done by Wainwright.

This is in Bb minor, which is a very rare key.

Wainwright did the string arrangement himself.

The creaking at the beginning is actually a violin (though Wainwright agrees that it sounds like a fart). It was created by pressing down about a quarter of the way up a string and rubbing the string along the fingerboard while damping the string with the pinky.