Songfacts®:

• The song's title and all of its lyrics are Latin. "Agnus Dei" is a movement from a mass (older composers write many of these) and literally means:
  
  (Agnus Dei) Lamb of God
  
  (qui tollis peccata mundi) who takes away the sins of the world
  
  (dona nobis pachem) grant us peace. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Chris - Philadelphia, PA
• In this song, Wainwright is asking for clemency from people who attack him and his music.
• This is essentially a classical song. It is a setting of the text of one movement from a mass done by Wainwright.
• The song is in Bb minor, which is a very rare key.
• Wainwright did the string arrangement himself.
• The creaking at the beginning is actually a violin (though Wainwright agrees that it sounds like a fart). It was created by pressing down about a quarter of the way up a string and rubbing the string along the fingerboard while damping the string with the pinky. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Davis - Montreal, Canada, for all above