Christopher Churcher
The Hazelnut (2026)
for SSAA voices
approx. duration: 8 minutes
composed for The Hildegard Singers
And in this vision he showed a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand.
In this little thing I saw three truths: the first is that God made it; the second is that God loves it; the third is that God sustains it.
But what is that to me? Truly, the maker, the carer, and the lover. For until I am of one substance with him I can never have complete rest nor true happiness.
“God, of your goodness, give me yourself; for you are enough for me, and I cannot ask for anything less that would fully honour you. And if I do ask for anything less, I shall always be in want, but in you alone I have everything.”
from Revelations of Divine Love (c.1395)
Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–1416)
Programme Note
The Hazelnut sets words from the First Revelation of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich. My setting juxtaposes the contrasting modes of revelation found within Julian’s text: the profound theological vision disclosed through something as small and ordinary as a hazelnut, and the intensely personal, direct prayer, “God, of your goodness, give me yourself”. The piece incorporates a series of interconnected sections. The opening vision of the hazelnut serves as a recurring musical meditation, returning throughout the work as an image of divine presence contained within creation. At the heart of the work lies an extended setting of Julian’s prayer, which interpolates the “Prayer II” from Britten’s A.M.D.G. (“Ad majorem Dei gloriam”). This section is the only part of the music in which the texture expands into four parts, framing this moment of supplication as the spiritual centre of the revelation itself: from Julian’s image of the hazelnut—at once fragile, ordinary, and sustained by divine love—inviting repeated contemplation of the mystery that the smallest, humblest thing may disclose the presence of God.
