Alfred Bösendorfer

Dona Nobis Pacem

eXplora Grade 1+

DONA NOBIS PACEM is an ancient Latin vocal piece with a very calm and peaceful melody. The text is a prayer to God. In order to emphasize the questioning and asking element of the text 'Give us peace' more clearly, Alfred Bösendorfer composed an introduction (Introduktion) to it, which has the effect of a question. Thus, in combination with the original melody, a complete musical unity is created, which gives special expression to the plea for peace.
DONA NOBIS PACEM is a grateful melody for every musician - and also for the composer - since the phrasing is very clearly recognizable. The recurring main motif (first measure) lends itself very well to compositional elaboration. A polyphonic realization also sounds very effective - and Alfred Bösendorfer, as he notes with a slight wink, made grateful use of this.