Since the soloists and choir must, by necessity, sing the words, a great deal of the landscape is left to the orchestra. Much of the music was planned in the actual locations. Each movement of the work thus has two parallel purposes: a setting of the visionary words, and a portrayal of a specific place in Nantucket’s geography. In this oratorio, Julian’s visions are transposed from Norwich and mapped onto the Nantucket landscape. The landscape of Nantucket Island has been the driving force behind a large number of my compositions for many years.

(For example, the poem Apple-Basket, Apple-Blossom takes the story and structure of the Stations of the Cross, and maps them onto imagery of distinctly Orcadian character.) Living his entire life on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, Mackay Brown consistently explored the “transposition” of religious imagery and events to his native landscape. This interconnected concept was inspired by the writings of the great Scottish poet George Mackay Brown (1921–1996). The other is a “sonic geography” of Nantucket Island (located 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts in the United States). One is a sequence taken from Julian’s religious visions. The primary concept underlying this oratorio is the presence of two distinct discourses. Brunelle), two poems by English poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674), and a poem by the American writer Elizabeth Kirschner (b. Texts are also drawn from three additional sources: an excerpt from the Book of Margery Kempe (translated by Christopher M. Regarded even during her lifetime as a spiritual authority, her optimistic visions have been very influential in the years that have followed. Julian in Norwich, England (her true name is unknown). Considered one of the most significant English mystics of all time, Julian lived a reclusive life as an anchoress at the Church of St. 1393), believed to be the first English-language book written by a woman. Julian is best-known for her Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love (c.

The texts of the work are adapted primarily from the writings of Julian of Norwich (c. The Revelations of Divine Love (Metaphors from Sea and Sky) (2009), an oratorio for soprano, baritone, chorus, and chamber orchestra, was commissioned for and is dedicated to the choir of Royal Holloway, University of London and Rupert Gough, director of choral music.

Revelations of divine love