Centones meae urbi, an oratorio by Onutė Narbutaitė, one of Lithuania’s most outstanding and prominent composers, was written for Vilnius and has become something of a summary of Lithuanian oratorio. The oratorio reflects the various cultural layers of the city and the interaction of the diverse collections of the past in the present. The field of polystylistic associations goes back to the Middle Ages, and we can hear Gregorian and general choral chanting as well as hints of baroque and classical stylistics in the musical language.

The content of Narbutaitė’s oratorio is undoubtedly patriotic. The multicultural composition of the oratorio reveals the cultural diversity of Vilnius. It is performed in Lithuanian, Polish, Latin, Yiddish and other languages, thus creating a musical image of the Lithuanian capital as the spiritual centre of Europe. The text of the oratorio includes excerpts from the writings of the Old Testament, works by Czesław Miłosz, Adam Mickiewicz and Moyshe Kulbak, and quite a few other quotes. The piece ends with a special ringing of bells that is simultaneously ecclesiastical, glorifying, mournful, a summary of all the meanings of the oratorio, and symbolic. The oratorio is a contemporary work of memory art.