Pie Jesu (3:55)

The song “Pie Jesu” is taken from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Requiem”

Pie Jesu is a motet (Choral musical composition) derived from the final couplet of the Dies Irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent movement. Of all these, by far the best known is the Pie Jesu from Fauré’s Requiem; Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “just as Mozart’s is the only Ave verum corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu”. (Steinberg, Michael. “Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48.” Choral Masterworks: A Listener’s Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 131–137)

The version from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem has gained popularity especially in the world of popular music as a separate song. There are versions of it by Haley Westenra, Charlotte Church, Becky Gulsvig and Gaelen Gilliland of “Legally Blonde: The Musical”, and others.

Sarah Brightman’s version follows Webber’s Requiem settings including the Agnus Dei (Which otherwise should be a totally different piece) as a second verse.

The Latin words “Pie Jesu” mean “Pious Jesus”, though they are often translated Gracious Jesus, or Sweet Jesus. Devoted Jesus is a very correct rendering.