BRITTEN - REJOICE IN THE LAMB OP 30 SATB VOCAL SCORE

It was in 1943 that Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write a choral piece for the 50th anniversary of St. Matthew's Church in Northampton, England. The ensuing 'festival cantata', Rejoice in the Lamb for four soloists, choir, and organ, was a true musical marriage of the voices of the poet, Christopher Smart, and the composer. Britten took the text from the poem Jubilate Agno and organized it into ten contrasting sections in a manner reminiscent of a Purcell verse anthem.The poem is a celebration of praise through all creation, from old testament heroes and beasts to the joyful sounds and rhythms of various musical instruments, concluding with God himself making music on the harp. One of Britten's most popular and most performed works. bilate Agno which he composed in a mental asylum having been com