Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

This secular work by John Rutter is set to the text of Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet No. 18. Throughout the work, Rutter skillfully weaves the figurative language of the sonnet within the lyrical melodic lines of the music. Shakespeare’s expressive text is passed between the voices, with the warm, verdant harmonies enveloping the sonnet’s use of imagery and the work’s central metaphor of comparing love to a summer’s day.