23 June 2010

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings


Choral version of Agnus Dei sung to the theme of Samuel Barbers Adagio for strings.  Performed by The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, UK, directed by Richard Marlow.
There's no video with this, so open this in another window or tab and just listen while you browse TYWKIWDBI.  Hauntingly beautiful.

Barber's Adagio for Strings was played at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco.  It has also been included in the sound tracks of movies such as Amelie, The Elephant Man, and Platoon.

Link to the Trinity College Choir.

5 comments:

  1. StephenJune 23, 2010 at 2:13 PM

    It might also be noted that a choral rendition of this song is used as the opening track in the game "Homeworld."

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  2. MinnesotastanJune 23, 2010 at 2:18 PM

    Yes. A listing of its uses is at Wiki -

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_for_strings

    I just posted the few I was familiar with.

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  3. AnonymousJune 23, 2010 at 2:30 PM

    "I just posted the few I was familiar with."

    You're not familiar with The Simpsons, Southpark, and Seinfeld ??

    ReplyDelete
  4. MinnesotastanJune 23, 2010 at 2:45 PM

    Well, yes, I'm "familiar" with those three from the internet, but I've not seen any of the television programs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. le_sacreJune 23, 2010 at 7:39 PM

    Just to be a merciless pedant about it...

    Properly speaking, it's not "Agnus Dei sung to the theme of Barber's Adagio for Strings." It's an arrangement (pretty much a transcription) of the original string version set to the Agnus Dei text. And it was completed by Barber himself.

    There, now I can relax and enjoy the music. I prefer the original strings version, I think.

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