Rejoice in the Lamb - Britten
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Rejoice in the Lamb
Music by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Words by Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
About the Music:
Britten's Festival Cantata "Rejoice in the Lam op. 30, composed and first performed in the summer of 1943, is based on a section of a lengthy religious poem by Christopher Smart, the 18the century poet, who wrote it wile he was inmate of an asylum.
About the Words:
A "Commission of Lunacy" was taken out against Christopher Smart, and he was admitted in St. Luke's Hospital on May 6, 1757 as a "Curable Patient" by his wife Anna's stepfather John Newbery.[1] It is possible that Smart was confined by Newbery over old debts and a poor relationship between the two.[2] Regardless, there is evidence that an incident took place in St. James’s Park in which he "routed all the company" (Jubilate Agno B89) and this incident may have provoked his being locked away.[3]
During this time, Smart was left alone, except for his cat Jeoffry and the occasional gawker.[4] It is very possible that he felt "homeless" during this time and surely felt that he was in a "limbo… between public and private space".[5] He had nothing else but to turn inwards and devote himself to God and his poetry.[6] No specifics are known about Christopher Smart's day-to-day activities, and he was released from the asylum on January 30, 1763, but his poem was not to be published until 1939.[
As I sat in my first college music class at Stetson University, Dr. Robert Fort played the first section of Rejoice in the Lamb, lifted the record arm and asked, "what do you all think of this piece?" I have felt a connection to it ever since.
I had this piece as a set work for A-level music, which I was studying for as a teenage schoolboy in Lahore at the time. Only a few years ago did it dawn on me that it was only 20 years at the time since the composition of the piece that it had already become a school set work. The work instantly became a favourite of mine, and still is.
What a strenuously beautiful and, bearing in mind Smart's life, tragic piece. In my view this is the best rendition to date.
Unbelievably stunning
A wonderful piece, sung many times with the Choir of Leeds Parish Church under Donald Hunt's direction with accompaniment by Anthony Langford. Happy Days. Robert Denton 1963 - 1971
That has to be at least Three Thumbs Up ;-)
sincirely NEd
The pronounciation is off the chart!!! Still a beautiful and dramatic version of this iconic piece!!!
The only weakness in this piece is the fact that the first minute and a half of it is so incredibly and uniquely electrifying that the rest, as intricate and dramatic and delightful as it is, never quite completes what is set forth in those first moments.
How would one characterize that incredible chord in the introduction under the word "magnify" (1:13)? An A major/minor with augmented fourth? It's appropriately magnificent.
I have the Alto solo. But singing Soprano the rest of the piece. :-)
11:57 - Bass solo
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