Sunday at 11:15am
The Communion motet at the 11:15 Choral Mass, Love bade me welcome, is a setting of a text written in 1633 by the Anglican priest George Herbert. Composer Roxanna Panufnik, born in Poland and now active in the UK for many years, describes the work as such:
In 2015, the Reverend John Penny got in touch with me and asked if I would do something with a melody that had come to him, out of the blue. The story is a sad one – John and his wife Diana tragically lost their baby son Andrew, who died very soon after he was born. About a year later, the melody came to him suddenly – he said “I never had written a melody like it but instinctively I immediately knew that it was the fruit of my sorrow and pain, so I dedicated the melody to Andrew” So I have taken this beautiful, lilting melody and harmonized it, the chords gently supporting both music and text.
Next week we will feature organ music by women composers.