[1] Although the music demonstrates the sacred and contemplative aspect of Górecki's music, the piece still bears the traces of the earlier period of Górecki's composition, as is marked by a more violent and dissonant aspects of the work.
[citation needed] The text for the songs comes from the poems Offertorium and Introit by the contemporary Polish poet Marek Skwarnicki (1930–2013).
The poems had recently been published in Poland's main Catholic weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny, when Górecki composed the piece in 1971.
Such prose-like language, used colloquially, makes his utterance free of poetical embellishment, of literary conventions, of cross-references to any cultural code.
The UK concert premiere was given by Chamber Domaine on 4 of December 2008 at Gresham College, London.