full of sweet days
(2021)
Three George Herbert Settings for SATB choir
full of sweet days
love bade me welcome
Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing
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Choir of Royal Holloway and Rupert Gough on 30 August 2021 at Priory Church, Leominster, as part of the 2021 Presteigne Festival
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for the Choir of Royal Holloway
Nestled in the age of Shakespeare and Milton is the literary stalwart George Herbert, poet, clergyman, and oft forgotten as Welsh-born (born in Montgomery in 1593). The vivid poetry of Herbert has been something I have come back to as composer over the years, not least because of the sheer amount of existing settings I have sung in the past - Vaughan Williams, Britten, Rubbra, Weir, to name a few. Building on a previous setting of Herbert's Love (commonly known as 'Love bade me welcome'), written in 2018 on the occasion of the marriage of dear friends, Cathy and Andrew Martin, it has been a special moment for me to return to the vivid lyricism within Herbert.
-njd.
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SATB choir (divided)
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10’
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This work was commissioned by Presteigne Festival, with kind support from Tŷ Cerdd, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and National Lottery.
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text
i. full of sweet days
from George Herbert’s Virtue
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky;
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye;
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie;
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season'd timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.
ii. love bade me welcome
from George Herbert’s Love
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
iii. let all the world in ev’ry corner sing
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, "My God and King!"
The heav'ns are not too high,
God's praise may thither fly;
the earth is not too low,
God's praises there may grow.
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, "My God and King!"
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, "My God and King!"
The church with psalms must shout: no door can keep them out.
But, more than all, the heart
must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, "My God and King!"
other version
love bade me welcome for SSA choir