A Hymn to the Virgin

Spanning over 30 years, Britten’s four “Hymns”—each dedicated to a different saint—chart the composer’s career from precocious beginnings to mature virtuosity. The earliest, the exquisite A Hymn to the Virgin, was written when Britten was just 16. It would eventually be one of only two works performed at the composer’s own funeral. It’s a perfect miniature, setting its anonymous medieval text with striking tenderness and delicacy—not bad for a teenager, filling time while confined to the school sanatorium. The composer divides his eight voices into two choirs—the main choir and a semi-chorus or solo quartet. While the first remains grounded in the earthly by its English text, and in the human by its surging crescendos and climaxes, the other is set—physically and emotionally—at a distance. Singing only in Latin, these otherworldly voices echo and transmute the utterances of the first choir into music that’s unchanging, eternal. In Britten’s hands a simple hymn is itself transfigured into music radiant with spiritual mystery.