Devices and Desires

Composer Notes

My wife gave me a copy of Herrick’s complete poetry in 1982, and reading his poetry has deeply influenced my aesthetics. His phrases “wilde civility,” “sweet disorder,” and “times trans-shifting” express concepts that have fascinated me for years.

Robert Herrick earned his way in the 17th-century as an Anglican vicar, but is known primarily as one of the Cavalier poets. Many of his more than one thousand poems are addressed to imaginary mistresses (Julia, Corinna, Electra, and others).

The title for this work comes from a line in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.” Contrary to the prayer book’s statement, I suspect far too many people have too little followed the desires of their hearts.

This cantata celebrates earthly desires. The middle movement uses the device of juxtaposition to add complexity to that celebration. The idea for the movement came from Herrick’s lines, “Help me, Julia, for to pray,...Bring the holy-water hither.” In this movement I imagined Herrick (the baritone soloist) going through a prayer service with his thoughts constantly shifting to his imaginary mistresses.

The chorus (the congregation) and the baritone (Herrick) are both involved in this shifting. For example, the chorus pleads, “O my Electra! Be in love with none but me.” Later, while the chorus sings fragments of the hymn, Ye watchers and ye holy ones, Herrick interrupts, asking God to forgive him for his “unbaptized rhymes, Writ in my wild unhallowed times.” But when Herrick intones, “O Lord, open thou our lips,” and the chorus responds with “And our mouth shall show forth thy praise,” Herrick sings his famous poem “When as in silks my Julia goes.”

I interlocked two of Herrick's poems to create the text for the final movement. One speaks of all he hopes to accomplish with his book of poetry, and ends with a line expressing his desire to have Heaven “after all.” The other poem asks a painter to paint him a portrait of heaven, filling it with all the beauties he can imagine. This poem ends with a line suggesting that all imaginable beauty into combines nothing more wonderful than his Corinna’s eye.