O perfect Love
This wedding anthem for unaccompanied 4-part choir can be performed either SATB or SAA +Men.
The same score can be used flexibly for either line-up – or a mixture of the two, according to the balance of voices available and the conductor’s discretion.
Duration: 3′
The text is a wedding hymn by Dorothy B. Gurney (1858-1932).
O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne
That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
Whom Thou for evermore doest join in one.
O perfect Life, be Thou their full assurance
Of tender charity and steadfast faith
Of patient hope and quiet brave endurance,
With childlike trust that fears nor pain nor death.
Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;
Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,
And to life’s day the glorious unknown morrow
That dawns upon eternal love and life.
(O perfect Love
For ever join in one.)
The Lord’s my shepherd
An arrangement of Crimond by Jessie Seymour Irvine for three-part choir (SA plus men) with organ or piano
Duration: 3′
Descants for the following hymns
1) Be thou my Vision/Lord of all hopefulness (Slane)
2) Come down O Love Divine (Down Ampney)
3) Love Divine (Blaenwern)
4) O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness (Was Lebet, Was Schwebet)
5) Praise to the Lord the almighty the King of Creation (Lobe des Herrn)
6) The King of Love my shepherd is (Dominus Regit Me by Dykes)
7) We plough the fields and scatter (tune by Schulz)
Dowland Variations
The original string quartet version of this piece was composed to be played at a wedding. It has four variations leading to Dowland’s song ‘ Come away, sweet love doth now invite’.
Duration 5′