Pie Jesu
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I'm going to try to get into the habit of posting Q&A here. We'll see how long it lasts.

    In any case, someone was asked to sing Pie Jesu for a wedding, but without accompaniment. She began to look for the chant. But couldn't find it. So Richard Rice answers as follows:
    The Pie Jesu is the last verse of the Sequence, Dies irae. No other chant version exists that I know of. Sometime in the 19th century, it became a votive solo aria or motet following the consecration at Requiem Masses, and was usually the only part of the Sequence set polyphonically. There may be a hymn setting, but I don't know where.
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    Amybe they are thinking of Faure's setting?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Probably but can't be sung without accompaniment.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    The only a capella solo version would be the last versicles of the Dies irae. BTW there is a nice setting of just this text in polyphony by Morales. Obviously composed in Rome since the Spanish did not include it in their Requiems pre-Trent.

    moconnor
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Betcha 'twas the Lloyd-Webber. Ho-hum.
    I scream:
    "Faure, Faure
    Gabriel all the way!"
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Well, all I can think of to say is, "at a WEDDING??!?@?#?$?%??^???"

    Ooops, sorry.

    But seriously, at a wedding? I'm not getting it.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,185
    G: Maybe something about dying to self...*shrug*
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 966
    Perhaps the bride was thinking of the Pie Jesu sung by Sarah Brightman that is part of a Requiem Mass by Webber. Wouldn't be done without accompaniment, but a beautiful piece... I agree with the question about "at a WEDDING??!?@?#?$?%??^???"
  • Pes
    Posts: 623
    Personally, I find Webber's piece sentimental and banal and would never recommend it for anything, let alone for a wedding. Simply show the bride-to-be a copy of the words, its context, and ask her if she's planning to dispatch her bridegroom on the dais for dramatic effect.

    The quick-step character of Webber's melody on the final "dona eis requiem" is offensive: why on earth would anyone set the word "requiem," at the end of a phrase, to such a quick scattering of notes? It's impossible to describe this as anything other than cavalier decoration.

    I think what people respond to in this piece, at bottom, is the way the melody arches, and that there is a sort of tender sweetness being expressed. But there are many, many more appropriate and beautiful pieces of music -- particularly for a wedding.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 775
    'Tweren't a wedding, JT... she was going to sing it at a Holy Hour.
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • john m
    Posts: 136
    Back in 2000 I was requested by a bride to work the Andrew Lloyd Webber "Pie Jesu" into her wedding. She said she wanted it because it was "so pretty". I calmly and politely pointed out: "The Pie Jesu is a text from the Mass For The Dead. Are you really sure you want a text from the Funeral Mass sung at your wedding?" Upon learning the translation and the liturgical use of the text the bride changed her mind quite quickly. People who know only a little bit about sacred music present the greatest challenge.
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    I was also asked to do Pie Jesus for a wedding because Charlotte Church has it on her album and Jackie Evancho sings it beautifully. Again, it's just a case of educating non musicians about the appropriateness of certain music, whether the melodies are beautiful or not.
  • Pedro d'Aquino
    Posts: 128
    A little learning is a dangerous thing;
    drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
    there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
    and drinking largely sobers us again.

    - An Essay on Criticism, 1709 by Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    A bride just made the same request of me. She changed her mind when I said, "Yes, I know it's pretty, but it's for dead people."
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,016
    Another approach is to ask where the catafalque will go in the entrance procession. (The pall only comes in white or black; sorry, no pastel shades to complement the bridesmaids, but if they want to hold candles next to it, that's fine by us.)
    Thanked by 4canadash Gavin Jeffrey Quick Jenny
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