text: Miserere

The period around 1980 marked a turning point in Pärt’s oeuvre. From then on, he would focus primarily on religiously inspired and vocal works, often based on biblical texts. For his 1989 *Miserere*, he combined two of these: on the one hand, the verses from Psalm 50, in which King David begs for forgiveness after being accused of adultery and murder, and on the other, the text of the Day of Judgement (Dies Irae) from the Requiem. In the coda, both perspectives merge into a single silent prayer.