Christopher Churcher
Light (2024)
for SATB voices (divisi)
approx. duration: 5 minutes
composed for Somerville College Choir
Light, my light, the world-filling light,
the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of my life;
The light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love;
The sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.
The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light.
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.
The light is shattered into gold [on every cloud, my darling,
and it scatters gems in profusion.]*
The heaven’s river has drowned its banks
and the flood of joy is abroad.
Rabindranath Tagore 1861-1941
Programme Note
Light draws on the radiant imagery of Tagore’s poem, a powerful meditation on yearning, inner illumination, and the redemptive power of love to lift the darkness of suffering. For Tagore, light encompasses both stillness and radiance: a quiet, luminous opening gradually comes alive, gathering impulse through unfolding rhythmic lines that evoke the delicate, graceful flight of butterflies, and the tender perfume and colour of lilies and jasmines. The music rises toward a climax, returning to the poem’s opening invocation: “Light, my light, the world-filling light.
