Give Us Peace (Dona Nobis Pacem) – Ukulele and Cello

Dona Nobis Pacem is many hundreds of years old, it is a tune that originated from the Latin Mass and it is a liturgical canon taken from the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), with Dona Nobis Pacem meaning “Give us Peace”.

I have played the ukulele for several years.  It is a wonderful, sweet and unassuming instrument.  The idea for doing this song took root in my mind as a counter response to all of the non-peace that the world seems to be filled with these days.  And therefore, it is a simple, spacious melody given to the world which is so often busy, distracted and full of disagreement, disharmony, fighting and war.  I also thought the idea of a ukulele playing together with a cello served as an excellent allegory to the dream of two opposite people, nations, cultures or religions living in peace and harmony together.

My arrangement of this is based upon the one provided by Mr. Ken Middleton (www.kenmiddleton.co.uk).  I recorded the cello part using my Fender Marauder guitar running through a Roland GR-55 synthesizer into Logic Pro 9.  The ukulele was recorded acoustically via an AKG condenser microphone through a Line6 UX2 audio interface also into Logic.  Mixing assistance was provided by Mr. Michael Powers (www.michaelpowersmusic.com).

Click on the link below to listen to the recording.  I hope you feel peace after listening to this song.

Podcast – Give Us Peace – Dona Nobis Pacem, Ukulele and Cello

Next on the agenda is an arrangement of this same song for acoustic guitar and ukulele, both recorded unplugged.  Stay tuned.

Incidentally, you can freely download, share and use all of my songs. [More Information]

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peacebuilding_2

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It’s Cello Time

But not exactly Tulsa Time.  But it is time to finish off the first half of this Dona Nobis Pacem duet.

I had to monkey around with the Cello patch settings quite a bit on the GR-55 to get an authentic cello sound and eliminate misfiring of notes, but now I think I’ve nailed it.

Roland GR-55 Cello

Here is the rest of the Cello part to Dona Nobis Pacem, which is now up on SoundCloud.com.

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