My musick shall finde thee
The Composer as Theologian When Setting George Herbert’s Poetry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.23739Keywords:
Calvinism, theology, sacramental, poetry, Herbert, anthem, antiphon, Book of Common Prayer, psalms, Psalter, ecclesiologyAbstract
In this essay, I accept scholarly assessments of the theology of Renaissance poet George Herbert (1593–1633) as high sacramental ecclesiology melded with Synod of Dort (1618–19) Calvinism (which I describe briefly). This given, I consider what theological messages we can expect to find in lyrics drawn from Herbert’s poetry. I make the point that music can amplify the meaning of a text. I then describe in depth the doctrine taught in three well-known poems when set as a choral anthem.
References
Bloch, Chana. 1985. Spelling the Word: George Herbert and the Bible. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Charles, Amy. 1977. A Life of George Herbert. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Doerksen, Daniel W. 2011. Picturing Religious Experience: George Herbert, Calvin, and the Scriptures. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press.
Dolan, Paul J. 1969. “Herbert’s Dialogue with God.” Anglican Theological Review 51: 125–32.
Ebner, Benjamin Todd. 2014. “A Soul Composed of Harmonies: George Herbert’s Life, Writings, and Choral Settings of His English Poetry.” PhD diss., University of South Carolina. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/2993.
Herbert, George. 1974. The English Poems of George Herbert, edited by C. A. Patrides. London: Dent.
Hunter, Jeanne Clayton. 1988. “George Herbert and Puritan Piety.” Journal of Religion 68: 226–41.
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. 1979. Protestant Poetics and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. 1985. Reformation Spirituality: The Religion of George Herbert. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.
Williams, Donald T. 1990. “‘Thou Art Still My God’: George Herbert and the Poetics of Edification.” Christian Scholar’s Review 19: 271–85.
