David Hurd’s Love Bade Me Welcome is a luminous and expressive setting of a poem by George Herbert, a 17th-century Anglican poet and priest. The poem’s narrative of the soul’s hesitation and ultimate acceptance of divine love is mirrored in Hurd’s music, which moves with restraint and tenderness, gradually opening up to moments of radiant affirmation, through careful pacing, warm textures, and nuanced dynamics.
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David Hurd (b. 1950)
Love Bade Me Welcome
About the work
Text
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 lack’d anything.
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 lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘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 marr’d 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.
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 marr’d 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.
Han Wagner (b. 1999)
Firefly
About the work
Firefly, which we are premiering tonight, was written for Lux by our own Han Wagner. Originally composed for choir and ukulele, the version we are performing tonight has been adapted for choir and piano instead. The piece depicts the light of the firefly as a faint reminder of daylight amidst a darkening night, using a soothing piano line and rhythmic variation to conjure up the feeling of a twilight scene, which finally disappears in an aleatoric deconstruction of chanting voices at the end.
Text
Flickering on, like a meteor shower in the distance
The firefly glints, fading in and out of existence
Dancing along is the little flame, twirling and spinning and dying
Whispering songs of the sun’s return from hiding
The wayfaring star shudders at the calm of the morning light,
The comfort of night comes crashing down to Earth
and halts the flight of our guide.
Though blinded, he bides unwavering and crosses into dreams,
terrified yet contented.
Shrouded by a lingering palm, tempted by Gileadean balm,
Enraptured by promise of silence,
promise of mending, promise of weightlessness.
The firefly glints, fading in and out of existence
Dancing along is the little flame, twirling and spinning and dying
Whispering songs of the sun’s return from hiding
The wayfaring star shudders at the calm of the morning light,
The comfort of night comes crashing down to Earth
and halts the flight of our guide.
Though blinded, he bides unwavering and crosses into dreams,
terrified yet contented.
Shrouded by a lingering palm, tempted by Gileadean balm,
Enraptured by promise of silence,
promise of mending, promise of weightlessness.
Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
O vos omnes
Performance details
Austin Nikirk and Melodia Mae Rinaldi, soprano soloists. Adam Whitman, alto soloist. John Mullan, tenor soloist. Thomas Rust, bass soloist.
About the work
Carlo Gesualdo was a 16th century Italian composer known for his colorful backstory and his chromatic language, which anticipated more than 250 years in advance developments that would not fully arrive in Western music until the late 19th century. This motet, O vos omnes, sets one of the famous Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday. Adapted from Lamentation 1:12, the text calls for travelers on a road to watch and understand the suffering of the speaker; in Christian traditions, this is understood as a reference to the suffering of Christ. Gesualdo uses silence, sudden harmonic turns, and wrenching suspensions to evoke a sense of suffering that is internal, spiritual, and raw.
Text
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte:
Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
Attendited, universi popupli, et videte dolorem meum:
Si est dolor simils sicut dolor meus.
Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
Attendited, universi popupli, et videte dolorem meum:
Si est dolor simils sicut dolor meus.
Translation
O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention and see:
if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
Pay attention, all people, and look at my sorrow:
if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
Pay attention, all people, and look at my sorrow:
if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
3. Ad Manus
from Membra Jesu Nostri
Performance details
Austin Nikirk and Melodia Mae Rinaldi, soprano soloists. Anya Trudeau and Adam Whitman, alto soloists. John Mullan, tenor soloist. Thomas Rust, bass soloist.
About the work
Ad manus (”To the Hands”) is the second cantata in 17th century composer Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, a cycle of seven sacred cantatas meditating on the wounds of the crucified Christ. Each movement focuses on a different part of Christ’s suffering body—feet, hands, side, breast, heart, and face—drawing from biblical texts and medieval poetry. In Ad manus, Buxtehude turns his attention to Christ’s pierced hands. The cantata opens with a brief instrumental sonata, establishing a mood of quiet reverence. The first vocal section sets a biblical text from the prophet Zechariah (“What are these wounds in the midst of your hands?”), which is sung by a trio of solo voices over a gently expressive continuo. The music here is marked by its clarity and restraint. Buxtehude’s setting is deeply affective, using imitation and expressive dissonance to convey both sorrow and devotion. The vocal writing is often delicate and transparent, with moments of aching suspension and harmonic richness that draw the listener into a meditative space. The final section returns to the biblical trio, now harmonized for the full ensemble, creating a satisfying structural symmetry and a sense of spiritual resolution.
Text
Quid sunt plagae istae
in medio manuum tuarum?
Salve Jesu, pastor bone,
fatigatus in agone,
qui per lignum es distractus
et ad lignum es compactus
expansis sanctis manibus.
Manus sanctae, vos amplector,
et gemendo condelector,
grates ago plagis tantis,
clavis duris guttis sanctis
dans lacrymas cum osculis.
In cruore tuo lotum
me commendo tibi totum,
tuae sanctae manus istae
me defendant, Jesu Christe,
extremis in periculis.
in medio manuum tuarum?
Salve Jesu, pastor bone,
fatigatus in agone,
qui per lignum es distractus
et ad lignum es compactus
expansis sanctis manibus.
Manus sanctae, vos amplector,
et gemendo condelector,
grates ago plagis tantis,
clavis duris guttis sanctis
dans lacrymas cum osculis.
In cruore tuo lotum
me commendo tibi totum,
tuae sanctae manus istae
me defendant, Jesu Christe,
extremis in periculis.
Translation
What are those wounds
in the midst of your hands?
Hail, Jesus, good shepherd,
wearied in agony,
tormented on the cross,
nailed to the cross,
your sacred hands stretched out.
Holy hands, I embrace you,
and, lamenting, I delight in you,
I give thanks for the terrible wounds,
the hard nails, the holy drops,
shedding tears with kisses.
Washed in your blood,
I wholly entrust myself to you:
may these holy hands of yours
defend me, Jesus Christ,
in the final dangers.
in the midst of your hands?
Hail, Jesus, good shepherd,
wearied in agony,
tormented on the cross,
nailed to the cross,
your sacred hands stretched out.
Holy hands, I embrace you,
and, lamenting, I delight in you,
I give thanks for the terrible wounds,
the hard nails, the holy drops,
shedding tears with kisses.
Washed in your blood,
I wholly entrust myself to you:
may these holy hands of yours
defend me, Jesus Christ,
in the final dangers.
Intermission 15m
Ended
Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)
To the Hands
Performance details
Movement 5
Austin Nikirk, Ariana Parks, John Mullan, and Han Wagner, soloists.
Movement 6
Austin Nikirk and Ariana Parks, soprano soloists. Adam Whitman, alto soloist. John Mullan, tenor soloist. Han Wagner, bass soloist.
Austin Nikirk, Ariana Parks, John Mullan, and Han Wagner, soloists.
Movement 6
Austin Nikirk and Ariana Parks, soprano soloists. Adam Whitman, alto soloist. John Mullan, tenor soloist. Han Wagner, bass soloist.
About the work
Composer Caroline Shaw writes:
The Crossing commissioned To the Hands as a response to Ad manus from Dieterich Buxtehude's 17th century masterpiece, Membra Jesu Nostri. It is a part of the Seven Responses project and was performed by members of The Crossing, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and the early music ensemble Quicksilver, alongside the complete Buxtehude and new works by six other composers.
To the Hands begins inside the 17th century sound of Buxtehude. It expands and colors and breaks this language, as the piece’s core considerations, of the suffering of those around the world seeking refuge, and of our role and responsibility in these global and local crises, gradually come into focus.
The prelude turns the tune of Ad manus into a worldless plainchant melody, puncture later by the strings' introduction of an unsettling pattern. The second movement fragments Buxtehude's choral setting of the central question, “Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum,” or “what are these wounds in the midst of your hands.” It settles finally on an inversion of the question, so that we reflect, “What are these wounds in the midst of our hands?” We notice what may have been done to us, but we also question what we have done and what our role has been in these wounds we see before us.
The text that follows in the third movement is a riff on Emma Lazarus’ sonnet The New Colossus, famous for its engraving at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The poem's lines “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and its reference to the statue's “beacon-hand” present a very different image of a hand — one that is open, beckoning, and strong. No wounds are to be found there — only comfort for those caught in a dangerous and complex environment. While [the] third movement operates in broad strokes from a distance, the fourth zooms in on the map so far that we see the intimate scene of an old woman in her home, maybe setting the table for dinner alone. Who is she, where has she been, what lives has she left? This simple image melts into a meditation on the words in caverna from the Song of Solomon, found in Buxtehude's fourth section, Ad latus.
In the fifth movement, the harmony is passed around from one string instrument to another, overlapping only briefly, while numerical figures are spoken by the choir. These are global figures of internally displaced persons, by country, sourced from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) data reported in May 2015 (accessed on 20/03/16 at www.internal-displacement.org). Sometimes data is the cruelest and most honest poetry.
The sixth and final movement unfolds the words in caverna into the tumbling and comforting promise of “ever ever” — “ever ever will I hold you, ever ever will I enfold you”. They could be the words of Christ, or of a parent or friend or lover, or even of a nation.
1. Prelude
Text
[no text — choir on vowels only]
2. in medio / in the midst
Text
Quid sunt plagae istae?
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum?
In medio
Quid sunt plagae istae?
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum nostrarum?
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum?
In medio
Quid sunt plagae istae?
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum nostrarum?
Translation
What are those wounds?
What are those wounds in the midst of your hands?
In the midst
What are those wounds?
What are those wounds in the midst of our hands?
What are those wounds in the midst of your hands?
In the midst
What are those wounds?
What are those wounds in the midst of our hands?
3. Her beacon-hand beckons
Text
Her beacon-hand beckons:
give
give to me
those yearning to breathe free
tempest-tossed they cannot see
what lies beyond the olive tree
whose branch was lost amid the pleas
for mercy, mercy
give
give to me
your tired fighters fleeing flying
from the
from the
from
let them
i will be your refuge
i will be your refuge
i will be
i will be
we will be
we will
give
give to me
those yearning to breathe free
tempest-tossed they cannot see
what lies beyond the olive tree
whose branch was lost amid the pleas
for mercy, mercy
give
give to me
your tired fighters fleeing flying
from the
from the
from
let them
i will be your refuge
i will be your refuge
i will be
i will be
we will be
we will
4. ever ever ever
Text
ever ever ever
in the window sills or
the beveled edges
of the aging wooden frames that hold
old photographs
hands folded
folded
gently in her lap
ever ever
in the crevices
the never-ending efforts of
the grandmother's tendons tending
to her bread and empty chairs
left for Elijahs
where are they now
in caverna [= in the hollow]
in caverna
in the window sills or
the beveled edges
of the aging wooden frames that hold
old photographs
hands folded
folded
gently in her lap
ever ever
in the crevices
the never-ending efforts of
the grandmother's tendons tending
to her bread and empty chairs
left for Elijahs
where are they now
in caverna [= in the hollow]
in caverna
5. Litany of the Displaced
Text
The choir speaks global figures of internal displacement, sourced from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (link accessed 01/03/2016). The numbers spoken are the numbers of internally displaced persons by country, in ascending order. These are people, some of whom may have legal refugee status, who have been displaced within their own country due to armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, or violation of human rights.
6. i will hold you
Text
i would hold you
i would hold you
ever ever will i hold you
ever ever will i enfold you
in medio
in medio
in medio
in medio
in medio manuum tuarum
i would hold you
ever ever will i hold you
ever ever will i enfold you
in medio
in medio
in medio
in medio
in medio manuum tuarum
Translation
[i would hold you
i would hold you
ever ever will i hold you
ever ever will i enfold you]
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst of your hands
i would hold you
ever ever will i hold you
ever ever will i enfold you]
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst
in the midst of your hands