Duration: 5′
- Organ
- Gemini Publications
- Commissioned by London Festival of Contemporary Church Music
- First performance 12th May 2010 – Léon Charles – St Pancras Church, London
Sounding Heaven and Earth was commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music and was first performed by Léon Charles on 12 May, 2010, at St Pancras Church, London, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Choral Evensong.
Sounding Heaven and Earth is inspired by Prayer, a sonnet written by the metaphysical poet, George Herbert.
PRAYER the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’Almightie, sinner’s towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six daies world-transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear ;
Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the stars heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.
Link to score:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sounding-heaven-and-earth-9780193378865