The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phone

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

www.nga.gov

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

3,008th Concert

Cathedra

Michael McCarthy, conductor

Presented in collaboration with the 

Association ofAnglican Musicians

June 19, 2014

Thursday, 12:10 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

“Lay a Garland”

Robert Lucas de Pearsall (1795-1856)

Lay a Garland

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Three Flower Songs

James MacMillan (b. 1959)

Invocation

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Take Him, Earth,for Cherishing

Karen Thomas (b. 1957)

Caritas abundant in omnia

World premiere performance

Commissioned by the 2014 DC Conference ofthe

Association ofAnglican Musicians

Howells 

Requiem (1935)
The Musicians

CATHEDRA

Established in 2010 under the auspices ofWashington National Cathedral, 

Cathedra has already achieved high acclaim for its “beautiful, blended sound”

(The Washington Post). Specializing in Renaissance, baroque, and contemporary choral music, the ensemble consists ofprofessional singers and instrumentalists who are dedicated to bringing the highest form ofmusical expression to their art. The choir maintains a website at www.singcathedra.org.

MICHAEL MCCARTHY

Prior to his appointment as Washington National Cathedral’s director of

music in 2003, Michael McCarthy was the founder and director ofthe

London Oratory School Schola. Under his leadership, Schola became one

of London's premier concert boychoirs, performing regularly in that city’s

churches and concert venues and recording CDs and film scores, among

them Sleepy Hollow, and the Lord ofthe Rings and Harry Potter cycles.

A graduate ofthe Guildhall School of Music and Drama, McCarthy 

has worked as a singer with numerous professional choirs including the

Gabrieli Consort, the Monteverdi Choir under the direction of Sir John Eliot

Gardiner, and the Sixteen. As lay clerk at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford,

and Saint Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire, McCarthy trained and supervised

young singers as well as adult choirs. As director ofmusic at the Washington National Cathedral, he oversees its expanding music program and serves

as principal choirmaster for the Cathedral Choir and Cathedral Voices.

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Texts and Translations

Lay a Garland

From The Maid's Tragedy (1608-1611) by Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)

and John Fletcher (157g-1625)

Lay a garland on her hearse of dismal yew.

Maidens, willow branches wear, say she died true.

Her love was false, but she was firm

Upon her buried body lie lightly, thou gentle earth.

Three Flower Songs

1. I Hide Myself

Emily Dickinson (1850-1886)

I hide myselfwithin my flower that wearing on your breast,

You, unsuspecting, wear me too and angels know the rest.

I hide myselfwithin my flower that fading from your vase,

You, unsuspecting feel for me almost a loneliness...

2. With a Lily in Your Hand

Frederico Garcia Lorca (i8g8-igj6)

Translated by Jerome Rothenberg

With a lily in your hand

I leave you,

O my night love!

Little widow ofmy single star I find you.

Tamer of dark butterflies!

I keep along my way.

After a thousand years are gone 

you'll see me,

O my night love!

By the blue footpath, tamer of dark stars,

I'll make my way,

Until the universe can fit inside my heart.

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3. Go, Lovely Rose

Edmund Waller (1606-1687)

Go, lovely rose

Tell her that wastes her time and me,

That now she knows,

When I resemble her to thee,

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young,

And shuns to have her graces spied,

That hadst thou sprung

In deserts where no men abide,

Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired;

Bid her come forth,

Suffer herselfto be desired,

And not blush so to be admired.

Then die!

That she

The common fate of all things rare 

May read in thee;

How small a part oftime they share, 

That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

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Invocation

Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005); translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz

I call you and I seek you, O Man, in whom man's history finds its body.

I go toward you and do not say “come,” but simply “be.”

Be where there is no record, yet where man was, was with his soul, his heart, 

desire, suffering, and will, consumed by feeling, burnt by most holy shame. Be

an eternal seismograph ofthe invisible but real.

O Man, in whom our lowest depths meet our heights, for whom what is within

is not a dark burden but the heart. Man in whom each man can find his deep

design, and the roots of his deeds: the mirror oflife and death eyeing the

human flux.

Through the shallows of history I always reach you walking toward each heart, 

walking toward each thought (history—the overcrowding ofthoughts, death of

hearts). I seek your body for all history. I seek your depth.

Words © 2004 Boosey e[ Hawkes Music Publishers, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.

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Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing

Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (548-0. 405); translated by Helen Waddell (1889-1965)

Take him, earth, for cherishing

To thy tender breast receive him.

Body of a man I bring thee,

Noble even in its ruin.

Once was this a spirit's dwelling,

By the breath of God created.

High the heart that here was beating,

Christ the prince of all its living.

Guard him well, the dead I give thee,

Not unmindful ofhis creature

Shall he ask it: he who made it

Symbol ofhis mystery.

Comes the hour God hath appointed

To fulfill the hope ofmen,

Then must thou, in very fashion,

What 1 give, return again.

Not though ancient time decaying

Wear away these bones to sand,

Ashes that a man might measure

In the hollow of his hand:

Not though wandering winds and idle,

Drifting through the empty sky,

Scatter dust was nerve and sinew,

Is it given to man to die.

Once again the shining road 

Leads to ample Paradise;

Open are the woods again 

That the serpent lost for men.

Take, O take him, mighty leader,

Take again thy servant’s soul.

Grave his name, and pour the fragrant

Balm upon the icy stone.

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Caritas abundat in omnia

Hildegard ofBingen (1098-1179)

Caritas abundat in omnia

de imis excellentissima 

super sidera,

atque amantissima in omnia,

uia summo Regi

osculum pacis dedit.

Charity abounds toward all,

most exalted from the depths

above the stars, 

and most loving toward all,

for she has given the High King

the kiss of peace.

Requiem

I. Salvator mundi

Matins Antiphonfor the Feast ofthe Holy Cross

O Savior ofthe world, who by thy cross and thy precious blood

hast redeemed us,

Save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.

II. Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; therefore can I lack nothing.

He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the

waters of comfort.

He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths ofrighteousness

for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in the valley ofthe shadow of death, I will fear no evil;

thy rod and thy staff comfort me.

Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me;

thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days ofmy life;

and I will dwell in the house ofthe Lord for ever.

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III. Requiem aeternam

Requiem aeternam dona eis. Eternal rest grant unto them.

Et lux perpetua luceat eis. And let light perpetual shine upon them.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

iv. Psalm 121

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills; from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh even from the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord himselfis thy keeper; he is thy defense upon thy right hand;

So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; yea, it is even he that shall keep 

thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth

and for evermore.

v. Requiem aeternam

VI. I heard a voice from heaven

The Book ofRevelation 14:13

I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me,

“Write:

From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”

“Even so,” saith the Spirit, “for they rest from their labors.”

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