CHORAL MUSIC BY JONATHAN DOVE - Abeille Musique

was an unwritten language. It has no alphabet or symbols
and is purely reflective of their way of life. Although the
language is complex for outsiders to understand the
imagery can be simple and fresh as Rothenberg’s
translation shows. Dove’s response is equally simple and
uses a chant-like phrase which the basses sing at the start
as an endlessly repeated figure which seems to reflect both
primitivism and a kind of religious fervour. A second
section marked ‘more alert’ and to be sung in a ‘bird-like’
manner has the upper voices pecking at the words
‘Beautifully joyful’. The tenors and basses join and longernote
phrases bring back a feel of the chant which is
properly reintroduced in the final section. This builds to a
big climax and a quiet ending.
Of Seek him that maketh the seven stars (1995) Dove
has written that ‘the theme of light, and starlight in particular,
is an endless source of inspiration for composers’.
The anthem was commissioned by the Friends of the Royal
Academy of Arts for their annual service in St James’s
Church, Piccadilly in London, and Dove thought that these
images would also have a special meaning for visual
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artists. The organ part creates a musical image of the night
sky with its twinkling stars which he says ‘sets the choir
wondering who made them. The refrain “Seek him” starts
in devotional longing but is eventually released into a
joyful dance, finally coming to rest in serenity.’
Into thy hands was commissioned by Salisbury Cathedral
to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the canonization
of St Edmund of Abingdon (1175–1240), who was Canon
Treasurer of Salisbury before becoming Archbishop of
Canterbury. Dove was asked for an anthem which set
words of St Edmund (he actually set two prayers) which
would be sung in Pontigny Abbey in France where St
Edmund is buried. Of the work Dove has written: ‘Knowing
that it was a very resonant building, I imagined that the
echo would be part of the piece, and set the first prayer
spaciously, allowing for the sound of each phrase to
reverberate. The second prayer talks of pilgrimage and
eternity, and the music reflects this in a calm processional
which does not reach an ending, but simply, in trust,
surrenders itself.’
PAUL SPICER © 2010
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