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Programme Note

This setting of John Donne’s famous poem was commissioned by St Matthew’s Church, Northampton, and is dedicated to Michael Nicholas and the Church’s Choir, who gave the first performance in 1967, the year after the composition. The tone of the piece is predominantly reflective, the questioning text’s sharpness and pointedness mirrored, I hope, in the music’s austere expressiveness. The use of soli for three short phrases (two for Soprano, one for Tenor) reminds one that this is essentially a personal plea, though cast in the form of a communal prayer.

© Copyright 2004 by John McCabe