“Benedictus” was arranged and adapted from two-part acapella motet by Orlande de Lassus.

The vocals are accompanied by cello and a sparse guitar accompaniment.

Art Garfunkel spoke about the song with the Tufts University school paper.

“I’ve been at University now for about seven years. I’m in the graduate school there now but when I was an undergraduate I took quite a few music courses, one of which got me very involved in 16th century music. And I researched, one week in the library, a two-part setting of a benedictus from the church mass, originally done by Orlando de Lasso and brought it for the two of us to do. We rewrote the two parts and added guitar chords to it and put it into our first album for Columbia. This is our version of Benedictus”