Since the most ancient pages of music notation that have reached our days, the relation between text and music has been complex and always changing. In the first ecclesiastical music, said relation gave priority to the music's adequacy to the text, highlighting its message and helping the audience to understand it. But as more complex forms of composition evolved, such as different kinds of counterpoint, the equilibrium between the the musical texture's interest and the comprehension of the text began to change. Because in counterpoint each part is rhythmically independent, the same syllables appear articulated at different times in such a way that the text, taken exactly the way is sung, appears more or less distorted. This distortion includes repetitions and complex permutations of syllables.

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"Kyrie" is a thorough transcription of the liturgical text of the same name as used by different composers from the 14th to the 20th century and it reflects, through this distortion, the changes in the usage of text in music caused by the progress of the composition techniques.