Love Bade Me Welcome - SATB

Two Human Hymns comprises of settings for six-part choir and organ of two poems by 17th century English poets who are almost exact contemporaries; George Herbert and Henry King.The music for the choir is mostly composedin simple songlike shapes which are little hymns. The texts though clearly relate to Christian beliefs could be more widely applicable to all human experience which is why they have called them 'Human Hymns'.Thus Love BadeMe Welcome (G.Herbert) whilst obviously a Christian allegory can be read as a gently hypnotic love song and it is attempted to capture something of this atmosphere in the setting. Like to the Falling of a Star (H.King) although it mentions no God could be a Calvinist sermon capping its lovely account of the wonders of nature with an almost operatically sinister denouement. In the first half of the piece the music bubbles upwards fresh andoptimistic; in the second half like all those doomed sinners it is going down down down.The first performance was given by University of Aberdeen Chapel Choir on 22nd October 1995. Duration: c.7 minutes.

In 1994 for the 500th anniversary of the University of Aberdeen Judith Weir wrote two settings of 17th century English verse and choir entitles Two Human Hymns. In 1997 Weir arranged the first of these ‘Hymns’ asetting of George Herbert’s poem Love Bade Me Welcome - for a cappella choir of mixed voices (SSATBB).A piano accompaniment part is scored for rehearsal purposes.

Music for SATB chorus occupies an important place in Rhian Samuel's catalogue of works from the early carols written in the USA 'Jolly Wat the Shepherd' of 1970 and 'So Long Ago' (1st Prize Greenwich Festival 1979) to her most recent anthems for the Choir of New College Oxford. In her songs vocal chamber music and choral compositions she has explored an impressive range of poetry from anonymous 14th-century Welsh texts and traditional Japanese verse to Emily Dickinson Samuel Beckett and contemporary poets including Anne Stevenson. Samuel's three 'Jacobean Lyrics' of 1979 included a simple canonic account of George Herbert's 'I got me flowers'. Thisnew a cappella setting returns to the poet's sublime devotional verse reflecting the dialogue structure of 'Love Bade Me Welcome' through expressive contrasts of material and vocal ensemble.

Quelques-uns des morceaux les plus originaux de compositeurs contemporains de musique sacrée sont rassemblés ici, dans cette superbe collection. Ils sont plus particulièrement dirigés vers les directeurs de chorales qui cherchent à interpréter des morceaux spéciaux pour Noël. Dix-sept chants - dans des versions "a capella" et accompagné. Inclus entre autres "The Lamb" (Tavener), "I Sing Of A Maiden" (Berkeley), "The Holly And The Ivy" (Lutoslawski), "Jesus Christ The Apple Tree" (Poston) et "One Star At Last" (Maxwell Davies). / [Chester Book Of Carols] / Classique / Partition /