George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. He wrote poetry in English, Latin, and Greek. He is recognized as a great British devotional lyricist, and is associated with metaphysical poets. Herbert used puns and wordplay to “convey the relationships between the world of daily reality and the world of transcendent reality that gives it meaning.” A Puritan minister remarked that Herbert “speaks to God like one that really believeth in God, and whose business in the world is most with God.”
Herbert was a skilled lutenist who set his sacred poems to music. The second paragraph in “Easter” relates the lute to the crucifixion. The third paragraph states that “music is but 3 parts vied and multiplied,” probably describing the 3 notes of a chord competing with each other while multiplying the overall sound. Herbert even played the lute during his final illness, dying of consumption at age 39.
More than ninety of Herbert’s poems have been set to music. In his 1911 work Five Mystical Songs, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams used four of Herbert’s poems, with “Easter” split into two songs. The work features a baritone soloist with different possible arrangements, from one piano up to a full orchestra and chorus. To give you a taste of Vaughan Williams’ early genius, the second song from “Easter” is below:
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