View source for Pie Jesu

{{Short description|Text from the "Dies irae" often used in music}}
"'''Pie Jesu'''" ({{IPAc-en|'|p|iː|.|eɪ|_|'|j|eɪ|.|z|uː|,_|-|s|uː}} {{respell|PEE|ay|YAY|zu}}; original Latin: "'''Pie Iesu'''" {{IPA|/ˈpi.e ˈje.su/}}) is a text from the ''[[Lacrimosa]]'', a hymn in the sequence "[[Dies irae]]," where it is the final (nineteenth) [[couplet]]. The couplet is often included in musical settings of the [[Requiem Mass]] as a [[motet]]. The phrase means "[[wikt:pious|pious]] [[Jesus]]" in the [[vocative]].

==Popular settings==
The settings of the Requiem Mass by [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]] (H.234, H.263, H.269, H.427), [[Luigi Cherubini]], [[Requiem (Dvořák)|Antonin Dvořák]], [[Requiem (Fauré)|Gabriel Fauré]], [[Requiem (Duruflé)|Maurice Duruflé]], [[John Rutter]], [[Karl Jenkins]], [[Kim André Arnesen]] and [[Fredrik Sixten]] include a "Pie Jesu" as an independent [[Movement (music)|movement]]. Decidedly, the best known is the "Pie Jesu" from [[Fauré's Requiem]]. [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], who died in 1921, said of Fauré's "Pie Jesu": "Just as [[Ave verum corpus (Mozart)|Mozart's]] is the only '[[Ave verum corpus]]', this is the only 'Pie Jesu'."<ref>[[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Steinberg, Michael]]. "Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48." ''Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 131–137.</ref>

[[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]'s setting of "[[Pie Jesu (Lloyd Webber)|Pie Jesu]]" in [[Requiem (Lloyd Webber)|his Requiem]] (1985) has also become well known and has been widely recorded, including by [[Sarah Brightman]], [[Charlotte Church]], [[Jackie Evancho]], [[Sissel Kyrkjebø]], [[Ylvis]], [[Marie Osmond]], [[Anna Netrebko]], and others. Performed by Sarah Brightman and [[Paul Miles-Kingston]], it was a certified Silver hit in the UK in 1985.<ref>{{cite certification|region=United Kingdom|artist=Sarah Brightman & Paul Miles-Kingston|title=Pie Jesu|id=5101-380-1}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
The couplet is chanted by a group of [[Self-flagellation#Christianity|flagellant monks]] as a [[running gag]] during the 1975 film ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]''.<ref>{{YouTube|title=''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''. Animated interlude|id=99d9FC168lM}}; {{YouTube|title=''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' Monks (with subtitles)|id=e4q6eaLn2mY|link=no}}; {{YouTube|title=Monty Python – Holy Hand Grenade (with subtitles)|id=xOrgLj9lOwk|link=no}}. {{retrieved|access-date=23 July 2021}}</ref>

==Text==
The original text, derived from the "[[Dies irae]]" [[Sequence (musical form)|sequence]], is as follows:{{efn|1=''Pie'' is the [[vocative]] of the word ''pius'' ("pious", "dutiful to one's parent or God").<ref>Champlin, John Denison. [https://books.google.com/books?id=t8VZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22pius+meaning+dutiful+to+one's+parent%22 ''The New Champlin Cyclopedia for Young Folks'']. Holt, 1924, p. 403</ref> "Jesu" (''Iesu'' in Latin) is the vocative of ''Jesus/Iesus''.<ref>White, William. [https://books.google.com/books?id=v2AEAAAAYAAJ&q=%22we+do+in+Charle-s,+Jame-s,+Juliu-s,+and+Thoma-s%22 ''Notes and Queries'']. Oxford University Press, 1904, p. 490. "In Greek, which did not possess the sound ''sh'', but substituted ''s'', and rejected the Semitic evanescent gutturals, ''Yēshū''(''ā'') became ''Yēsū' '' (''Ἰησοῦ''), in the nominative case ''Yēsū'∙s'' (''Ἰησοῦς''). In Latin these were written in Roman letters ''Iesu'', nominative ''Iesu∙s''. In Old French this became in the nominative case ''Jésus''; in the regimen or oblique case ''Jésu''. Middle English adopted the stem-form Jesu, the regular form of the name down to the time of the Renascence. It then became the fashion to restore the Latin ''∙s'' of the nominative case, ''Jesu∙s'', and to use the nominative form also for the objective and oblique cases, just as we do in Charle∙s, Jame∙s, Juliu∙s, and Thoma∙s. Very generally, however, the vocative remained Jesu, as in Latin and in Middle English, and this is still usual in hymns."</ref> ''Requiem'' is the [[accusative]] of ''requies'' ("rest"), sometimes mistranslated as "peace", although that would be ''pacem'', as in ''[[Dona nobis pacem]]'' ("Give us peace").}}

{|
|<poem>Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem. (×2)

Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem sempiternam.</poem>
|<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">Pious Lord Jesus,
Give them rest.

Pious Lord Jesus,
Give them everlasting rest.</poem>
|}

===Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Requiem'' text===
[[Andrew Lloyd Webber]], in his ''[[Requiem (Lloyd Webber)|Requiem]]'', combined the text of the "Pie Jesu" with the version of the "[[Agnus Dei (liturgy)|Agnus Dei]]" from the [[Tridentine Mass|Tridentine]] Requiem Mass:

{|
|<poem>Pie Jesu, (×4)
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona eis requiem. (×2)

Agnus Dei, (×4)
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona eis requiem, (×2)
Sempiternam (×2)
Requiem.</poem>
|<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">Pious Jesus,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Give them rest.

Lamb of God,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Give them rest,
Everlasting
Rest.</poem>
|}

== Notes and references ==
{{notelist}}
'''References'''
{{reflist|45em}}

==External links==
*{{YouTube|xTf14maKtT8|From Fauré's Requiem}}, [[Philippe Jaroussky]], [[Orchestre de Paris]], [[Paavo Järvi]]
*{{YouTube|Vr6ajtA5Otg|From Lloyd Webber's Requiem|link=no}}, [[Hayley Westenra]]

{{TridentineLatinMass}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Christian hymns in Latin]]
[[Category:Latin religious words and phrases]]
[[Category:Songs about Jesus]]