Ave Maria

’Ave Maria’ is a popular choice for weddings and the liturgical text has been set to music by numerous composers.  Settings by Schubert or Bach/Gounod are popular for during the signing of the register.

Widmung

This passionate love song is set to a poem by Friedrich Rückert.  It opens Schumann's Myrthen (‘Myrtles’), Op. 25 collection from 1840, appropriately named after the blossoms traditionally associated with marriage festivals, as it was his wedding present to his bride, Clara Wieck.  In ‘Widmung’, Schumann confessed everything Clara was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. In this carefully balanced arrangement of text and music, Schumann revealed the depth of his engagement as a poet-musician.

Silent Noon

Whilst he is so well remembered for his symphonies and choral works it is possible to forget that Vaughan Williams first achieved celebrity as a songwriter.  One of his best-known songs is ‘Silent Noon’ which is the second in a cycle of six sonnets by the Pre-Raphaelite poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, set to music as The House of Life.  ‘Silent Noon’ is the apotheosis of erotic love, as the lover and his beloved lie together in a meadow beneath the summer sun.

Love’s Philosophy

Roger Quilter established his style in his Three Songs, Op. 3, 1905.  ‘Love’s Philosophy’ is the first of this collection and is a passionate setting of Shelley’s poem Love’s Philosophy.  This piece was dedicated to, and  originally sung by Gervase Elwes who was to be closely associated with Quilter’s songs for the rest of his life.