A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Aengstlich

AENGSTLICH (Germ, 'fearfully'). A word which calls for notice here only on account of its use by Beethoven at the head of the recitative in his Missa Solennis, 'Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.' In this most dramatic and emotional part of his great work Beethoven seems to realise the 'prayer for internal and external peace' which he gives as a motto to the entire 'Dona': the fierce blasts of the trumpets alternating with the supplications of the voices bring before us the enemy at the very gates. As in the case of Accelerando Beethoven has accompanied the German word with its Italian equivalent tramidamente.