Rejoice in the Lamb
Benjamin Britten in 1938.
Benjamin Britten, composer, conductor, and pianist, was a central figure in 20th-century British music. He composed in a broad range of genres, including opera, orchestral and chamber pieces, choral and solo vocal works, and film music. Recurring themes in his operas include the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society and the corruption of innocence— themes upon which his festival cantata, Rejoice in the Lamb, is also based.
Rejoice in the Lamb was composed for the 50th anniversary of St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton on September 21, 1943. The vicar, Walter Hussey, a notable patron of the arts, wrote in the program notes for the work’s first performance:
The words of the Cantata—“Rejoice in the Lamb”—are taken from a long poem of the same name. The writer was Christopher Smart, an eighteenth century poet, deeply religious, but of a strange and unbalanced mind.
“Rejoice in the Lamb” was written while Smart was in an asylum, and is chaotic in form but contains many flashes of genius.
It is a few of the finest passages that Benjamin Britten has chosen to set to music. The main theme of the poem, and that of the Cantata, is the worship of God, by all created being and things, each in its own way.
The Cantata is made up of ten short sections. The first sets the theme. The second gives a few examples of one person after another being summoned from the pages of the Old Testament to join with some creature in praising and rejoicing in God. The third is a quiet and ecstatic Hallelujah. In the fourth section Smart takes his beloved cat as an example of nature praising God by being simply what the Creator intended it to be. The same thought is carried on in the fifth section with the illustration of the mouse. The sixth section speaks of the flowers—“the poetry of Christ”. In the seventh section Smart refers to his troubles and suffering, but even these are an occasion for praising God, for it is through Christ that he will find his deliverance. The eighth section gives four letters from an alphabet, leading to a full chorus in section nine which speaks of musical instruments and music’s praise of God. The final section repeats the Hallelujah.
The original poem was a lengthy work entitled Jubilate Agno. The extant manuscript was not discovered until 1939, and is not complete. Its discoverer, William Stead, published the fragment under the name "Rejoice in the Lamb." Poet W.H. Auden brought the poem to Britten’s attention, and Britten was immediately attracted to its color, drama, bizarre imagery, and the central issue of the individual against the crowd, or against authority. Britten chose ten of the most celebratory and religious sections to set to music. While there is a mad, whimsical atmosphere to the poem, and to Britten’s setting, the religious character of the work is also striking throughout. The closing “Hallelujah” includes some of Britten’s most memorable music for chorus.