Love Bade me Welcome

George Herbert (E)

Love Bade Me Welcome was commissioned for the London Sinfonietta by John and Matthew Pike, family and friends and is scored for soprano, two violins and two cellos. It is a setting of the mystical, eucharistic poem by George Herbert (1593-1633). I am sometimes asked to set poems by Herbert and some of the other English mystical poets of that era but the resulting works are usually choral pieces and initially used for liturgy. This piece is different - not just in its scoring but in the opportunity provided to take the music in a very different direction.

First of all the instrumental ensemble accompanying the soprano is unusual. It is not an expected string quartet - the viola is replaced with another cello. Consequently the psychological texture is different to what might have been in an “ecclesial” choral setting and allows the music to inhabit a different subconscious context. The strings bring a mystery and a range of instrumental colour and shadings which open up a probing and ever-shifting underlay and background for Herbert’s strange sacred scenario - the encounter between the subject and his loving God who shares his very transubstantiated self as self-giving food.

Herbert’s text provides a stream of consciousness for the instrumental ensemble which accompanies the singer but also departs into more dreamy, independent territory, presenting prelude, interludes, episodes and postlude round about the words.

James MacMillan

Reproduction Rights
This note can be reproduced in concert programmes with a credit to the composer.