104. Qui tollis

The text consists of the middle sections of the Latin Gloria, “Qui tollis peccata mundi” and “Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris”.
There is no evidence regarding the genesis of this composition, which is not mentioned in the Puccini bibliography and is not listed in Schickling 2003. It probably dates from the time when Puccini attended the composition courses at the Istituto Musicale Pacini in Lucca. It was perhaps a student exercise in preparation for the Gloria of the Messa a quattro voci con orchestra (6).