Agnus Dei

"To revisit the religious musical heritage, and to confront it with other cultural and experiential places... At that linguistically festive moment, the mass on Pentecost Sunday, many and different types of music come together: the Gregorian tradition of the mass ordinary is gathered in a vaster space where testimonies of different writers embrace. These testimonies come from different men, from different times to visit this time of ours in a renovated encounter with the wonder of Sete Lágrimas. I dedicate to José Tolentino de Mendonça and his amazing intrepidity." (João Madureira) "The most recent example in João Madureira's work of a direct allusion to music of the past is the "Pentecost Mass" ("Missa de Pentecostes") commissioned by the Rato Chapel in Lisbon (Capela do Rato em Lisboa). The recording came out last year on November 25th on a CD entitled "Vento",performed by the "Sete Lágrimas" ensemble. The mass constitutes a rediscovery of the religious music patrimony "confronting it with other cultural places and living experiences. It joins varied, plural and diverse music: Gregorian mass tradition is integrated into a broader space, in which testimonies of different writers are embraced." "[The piece] is a repository of different expressions and musical quotations and, even more than that, the fruit of various crossings between my own musical expression and the materials I quoted." "Missa de Pentecostes" does not represent an exception in João Madureira's work, but a side, perhaps more explicit, of his relation with tradition."