For the Sunday after the Ascension, the St. Michael’s Singers tackle a short Anglican anthem by Patrick Hadley (1899-1973). “My Beloved Spake” is one of Hadley’s best known and most performed compositions, utilizing text from the Song of Solomon. Hadley composed the work (with a powerful organ part) for a former student’s wedding, offering to “try to knock off something if [she] would choose [him] some suitable words.” Correspondence between the two indicate that Hadley found the organ part difficult to compose, as he had had part of his right leg amputated during World War I. (“It would have been useless for me ever to have taken it up after the war, at any rate until they insert foot muscles in wooden legs!”) In the published 1938 edition, the composer specified that the anthem was also suitable to be sung in the spring. We thought it particularly appropriate for the Ascension: “Arise, my love, and come away.”

Spring Songs

Friday, May 15 at 7pm in Nativity Hall
Saturday, May 16 at 2pm at Moreland Presbyterian

TOMORROW (Friday) at 7pm, please join Hannah Brewer (piano) and Emma Cowell (soprano) for Ensemble Boulanger’s “Spring Songs” in the Nativity Hall. They will explore music by 19th and 20th century women, including birdsong and other celebrations of springtime. Works by celebrated African-American composers Florence Price (1887-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) will be prominently featured, along with English composers Elizabeth Poston, Rebecca Clarke, Liza Lehmann, and others. Free admission ($20 suggested donation), with light refreshments provided. The program will be performed again on Saturday, May 16 at 2pm at Moreland Presbyterian Church (1814 SE Bybee Blvd, Portland, OR 97202). Please see ensembleboulanger.com for more information.