More Music and Poems for Corpus Christi

Francis Newton Souza, The Last Supper, 1990

It was a great joy to lead Choral Classics at St Stephen Walbrook on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which you can watch at this link. Preparing for Choral Classics involved finding out a lot about music and poems related to Corpus Christi. This post contains some of the information I didn’t have enough time to share in the service! 

 

Music 

 

Mysterious grace

 

Oculi Omnium by Charles Wood is a short piece often sung as an introit. The Latin text is taken from verse fifteen of Psalm 145 : “The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord: and thou givest them their meat in due season” and is often used as a grace before formal dinners at Oxford and Cambridge colleges and livery companies. Charles Wood won a competition on 1904 to compose a musical setting of the grace for the Worshipful Company of Musicians. But mysteriously, the version most often performed today does not appear to be the original competition winning setting, which can be found on this page.

 

 

Self-wounding pelican

 

The music for Choral Classics is set by our choir and since the pandemic began the service runs to a maximum of twenty minutes as we fit in the recording before our Choral Eucharist. This meant it was not possible to sing the wonderful anthem by Finzi ‘Lo, the full final sacrifice’ a piece composed for Corpus Christi (at fourteen minutes it is just a bit too long for our programme). 

 

The text was drawn together by Finzi from poems by the metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw (c.1612-49) and two hymns by St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) “Lauda, Sion” and “Adoro te devote”. The last section of the lyrics refer to the image of the self wounding pelican, thought to feed its young from its own blood - a common eucharistic motif:

 

O soft self-wounding Pelican!

Whose breast weeps Balm for wounded man.

All this way bend thy benign flood

To a bleeding Heart that gasps for blood.

That blood, whose least drops sovereign be

To wash my worlds of sins from me.

Come love! Come Lord! and that long day

For which I languish, come away.

When this dry soul those eyes shall see,

And drink the unseal'd source of thee.

When Glory's sun faith's shades shall chase,

And for thy veil give me thy Face.

Amen.

 

An interesting article by Andrew Davison in the Church Times explores the background to the piece and can be found at this link. In my research for Choral Classics I came across this interesting orchestral version of the beautiful Amen at the end of the piece - one of my favourite Amens! Take a listen here. 

 

 

Angels’ Bread

 

It was interesting to learn that the text of the well known communion anthem Panis angelicus by César Franck is taken from the penultimate stanza of Sacris solemniis - a hymn written for Corpus Christi by St Thomas Aquinas 

 

The hymn begins with the words:

 

At this our solemn feast

let holy joys abound,

and from the inmost breast

let songs of praise resound;

let ancient rites depart,

and all be new around,

in every act, and voice, and heart.

 

 

Poems 

 

Bread for the World, In Mercy Broken – Reginald Heber

In researching readings for the service I came across several poems which I considered for use as part of Choral Classics, such as Bread of the World, In Mercy Broken by Reginald Heber (1783-1826) which you can read here.

 

Written in the third person, the words seem similar to the texts of the pieces of music that the choir were going to be singing. I thought that rather than describe the action of the Eucharist I would like the readings during the service ought to explore the response of the participants to receiving it. 

The Children of the Lord’s Supper – Tegnér, Bishop of Wexiö translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) spent the summer of 1835 in Sweden. On his return he set about translating a heroic poem by Tegnér, Bishop of Wexiö, for an American magazine. This article describes the circumstances that led him to translate another poem ‘Nattvardsbarnen” (The Children of the Lord’s Supper) into English. 

 

You can read the poem in full at this link. It describes a priest preparing a group of children to receive communion for the first time. The language is beautiful; particularly the description of the priest standing at the altar - and the extended section on the meaning of the sacrament, which reads as if it is a Eucharistic prayer. Writing to Wexiö, Longfellow said:

 

“The poem is indeed very beautiful; and in parts so touching that more than once in translating it I was blinded with tears. Perhaps my weakness makes the poet strong. You shall soon judge.”

 

The poem was just too long to use for Choral Classics and I felt that to divide it up to quote a shorter section would not work. 

The Holy Communion – George Herbert

I considered using George Herbert’s 1663 poem ‘The Holy Communion’ which you can read at this link. The poem mixes a description of the actions of the Eucharist with a description of Herberts personal response to it. 

 

This post on the always excellent “The Value of Sparrows” blog has four beautiful poems on the theme of the Last Supper by Dylan Thomas, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jacques Prévert and Mark Jarman, any of which would have made suitable readings for Choral Classics - but I felt that as all the music had been composed by men, perhaps I should find readings from female poets.

 

 

Windy Eucharist – E Florence Swanson

 

I came across this poem called ‘Windy Eucharist’ by E Florence Swanson 

which is the first of Three Poems printed in the September 1932 edition of poetry magazine - the others being ‘Pity the Dead’ and ‘Double Suicide’ which can be read at this link. 

 

In the first poem Swanson relates the Eucharist to the renewal and rebirth she sees at springtime but it’s mystery and transformational power seem inaccessible to her. The poem begins and ends with the acclamation “Deliver me, I die” cried out while birds fly above (perhaps a reference to the Holy Spirit). I wondered if the Three Poems ought to be read together; the first poem a reference to Good Friday, the second to Holy Saturday and the third Easter Sunday - the “Double Suicide” a reference to unity in death. However, I could not find any information about the poet nor any analysis of the poems online, and was not sufficiently confident in my interpretation to use it in the service. 

 

Corpus Christi : Invocation – Margery Swett Mansfield
 

I also came across this poem ‘Corpus Christi : Invocation’ by Margery Swett Mansfield but again felt it too long to use and not appropriate to quote in part during the service. 

 

After Communion – Christina Rossetti 

 

I have read extracts of Christina Rossetti’s long narrative poem ‘Goblin Market’ before, which has been interpreted widely and centres around the story of two sisters who are tempted to eat a forbidden fruit sold by river goblins. The poem, like others by Rossetti, is said to draw on Eucharistic imagery; like A Better Resurrection  which is analyzed in this excellent blog post by Christopher Adamson.

For Choral Classics I also considered this poem by Rossetti : ‘Come Unto Me’ but chose instead ‘After communion’ as it seemed the right length and also because it’s emphasis on the ‘now but not yet’ element of the sacrament. A detailed analysis of the poem on the Liturgical Credo blog edited by Colin Foote Burch, which I found very helpful in writing my script for Choral Classics. 


A General Communion – Alice Meynell

 

To accompany the poem by Rossetti I chose ‘A General Communion’ by Alice Meynell (1847-1922). The poem uses layers of meaning and clever word selection to blur the boundaries between the individual and the collective, with metaphors that highlight the unity in diversity of the Eucharist - an important point I wanted to convey. I found the analysis of the poem at this link very helpful. 

 

I had not heard of Alice Meynell before. This article talks about a comparison between her work and that of the metaphysical poets. This page has copies of many of her other poems 

 

It was a wonderful experience to research texts for Choral Classics. The poems and readings above that didn’t make it into the programme are beautiful and worthy of further study. It is a shame our time is so limited or we could have explored them all in the service!

Image : Francis Newton Souza, The Last Supper, 1990