I my Best-Beloved’s am

I my Best-Beloved’s am was written in 1999 for a BBC Singers broadcast concert on the theme of the Seven Sacraments. This a cappella anthem focuses on the theme of marriage – setting the nuptial responses from the old Tridentine Catholic marriage service and stanzas from Francis Quarles’s poetic paraphrase of the Song of Solomon – but, as the Song of Solomon is often understood as symbolic of the love between Christ and his Church, is also suitable for use throughout the Church year. Gregorian chant is the prevalent musical influence, and the male and female voices are offset against each other in an effective contrast.