IN COMMENDATION OF MUSIC (Choir – SATB, extensive divisi)

First performance – Chantry Quire, Chichester, 2012

Score available at Composers Edition https://composersedition.com/alison-willis-in-commendation-of-music

In Commendation of Music is a setting of the poem of the same name by William Strode (1598 - 1645) It suggests that one’s soul is changed for harmony at the time of death. It was written in memory of my father, Vincent Atherfold Dewberry. The picture is sunrise over Rutland Water, a place he loved as a teenager.

In Commendation of Music 

William Strode (1600 -1643)

When whispering straynes doe softly steale

With creeping passion through the hart,

And when at every touch wee feele

Our pulses beate and beare a part;

When thredds can make

A hartstring shake

Philosophie Can scarce deny

The soule consists of harmony.

When unto heavenly joy wee feyne

Whate're the soule affecteth most,

Which onely thus wee can explayne

By musick of the winged hoast,

Whose layes wee think

Make starres to winke,

Philosophie can scarce deny

Our soules consist of harmony.

O lull mee, lull mee, charming ayre,

My senses rock with wonder sweete;

Like snowe on wooll thy fallings are,

Soft, like a spiritts, are thy feete:

Greife who need feare

That hath an eare?

Down lett him lye and slumbring dye,

And change his soule for harmony.