Most Glorious
Lord of Life

at a glance

Instrumentation: SATB divisi and organ

Duration: 5 minutes 15 seconds

Composed: October 18, 2023 – March 29, 2024

Premiered: April 28, 2024, by the Harvard University Choir, Edward Elwyn Jones, Director

text

Amoretti LXVIII

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day,
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin:
And having harrow’d hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean wash’d from sin,
May live for ever in felicity.
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Edmund Spenser (1552/53 – 1599)