SACRED SONGS

Sacred Songs consists of three intense religious poems by the English poet George Herbert (1593-1633) in settings for baritone and piano. This poet's deep belief in a Christian God of love and salvation is fervently expressed, often in dialogues with his savior. The texts of the first and third poems, Love (I) and Love (II), are similar in form and are set with identical musical materials, so that the third song is a kind of mirror to and variation on the first. The middle poem, The Temper (I), is more discursive and conversational and its setting is more varied musically; at the heart of this song is a series of variations on a repeated bass line. Begun in 2010 at the suggestion of American scholar Chauncey Wood, the cycle was completed in early January, 2011. The texts used come from the 1633 publication of Herbert's The Temple.