Panis Angelicus

According to one of his biographers, the melody of Panis angelicus first came to Franck as an improvisation during a Christmas service in 1861, while he was organist at Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He wrote it out in 1872 as a motet for tenor, organ, harp and cello with double bass, published it the same year, and later inserted it into his Messe à trois voix, op. 12, which dated from 1860. It is now usually heard with reduced accompaniment and often sung by a soprano, and it circulates far beyond the Mass it belongs to.