The True Samaritan

(1958, rev. 1998)

by Nigel Butterley

Complete lyrics at end

Programme Note

Written when the composer was in his early twenties, The True Samaritan, a set of four unaccompanied motets, had to wait some eighteen years for its first performance, at the 1976 Intervarsity Choral Festival in Hobart, Tasmania. By this time it appeared to Butterley "almost as if the composer had been someone else", and he took the opportunity to make a few small cuts and other revisions.

The texts for the second and third motets (The True Samaritan and My Wishes), although anonymous, are personal and intimate reflections on the soul's need for God; the settings are eloquent in their simplicity and understatement. They are framed by the much larger and more extrovert first and fourth pieces (Morning Fanfare and Surrexit Dominus), which proclaim the joy of Christmas and the triumph of Easter respectively.

The choral writing owes a clear debt to Britten and particularly Tippett, in its textural and harmonic inventiveness and sensitivity to text declamation, but already shows---particularly in the restrained inner movements---the beginnings of Butterley's own distinctive voice.

These notes may be freely reproduced in concert programmes etc providing copyright acknowledgement is given as above. The composer strongly encourages the printing of the complete lyrics in programme notes (given below to facilitate an easy 'copy and paste').

The HMP edition of The True Samaritan is edited by Prue Ashurst, an experienced choral specialist. She has conducted the work and at various times has been conductor of the University of Western Australia Choral Society and the Perth Undergraduate Choral Society, in addition to many other ensembles. The publisher and composer express their gratitude to Ms Ashurst.

This major choral work is a setting of four poems as four separate unaccompanied motets. The composer is very happy for the motets to be performed separately or together in any combination. However, if all four are performed they should be in the order given. Click on each link below to view a printable low-resolution sample:

1. Morning Fanfare

2. The True Samaritan

3. My Wishes

4. Surrexit Dominus

The True Samaritan

by Nigel Butterley

Complete Lyrics

1. Morning Fanfare (William Austin, 1587 - 1634)

Hail O Sun O blessed Light!

All this night shrill chanticleer,

Day's proclaiming trumpeter claps his wings, and loudly cries,

mortals, mortals, wake and rise.

See a wonder Heaven is under;

From the earth is risen a sun,

shines all night though day be done.

Wake O earth wake everything,

wake and hear the joy I bring;

Wake O earth wake everything,

Wake and joy for all this night,

Heaven and every twinkling light,

all, all amazing,

Still stand gazing.

Angels, Powers and all that be,

wake and joy this sun to see.

Wake and joy this sun to see.

Hail O sun O blessed light,

sent into the world by night.

Hail O sun O blessed light.

Let thy rays and heavenly powers shine

in these dark souls of ours;

For most duly Thou art truly God and man we do confess,

Hail O sun, O sun, hail O sun, hail O sun!

2. The True Samaritan (anon.)

No balm from Gilead

no physician can heal me

but Christ the True Samaritan

When I am sick and when my wounds are foul

He hath his oil and wine to cleanse my soul.

My sins the thieves which wounded me have been;

Help Lord Conduct me to thy peaceful inn.

3. My Wishes (anon.)

I wish no wit to wrong my brother,

I wish no wealth to wrong another,

I wish no beauty to enthrall,

I wish no worldly wish at all.

I wish from sin God would me bring;

I wish for heaven at my ending.

4. Surrexit Dominus (William Dunbar c. 1465 - 1530)

Done is the battle on the dragon black,

Our champion Christ confounded has his force;

The gates of hell are broken with a crack,

The sign triumphal raised is of the cross,

The devils tremble with a hideous voice,

The souls are borrowed and to bliss can go;

Christ with his blood our ransom does endorse:

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

Done in is the deadly dragon Lucifer,

The cruel serpent with the mortal sting;

The old keen tiger with his teeth ajar,

Which in await has lain there for so long,

Thinking to grip us in his claws so strong;

The merciful Lord would not that it were so,

He made him for to fail to gain that thing:

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

He for our sake that suffered to be slain,

And like a lamb in sacrifice did lie,

Is like a lion risen up again,

And as a giant raises him on high;

Sprung is Aurora radiant and bright,

On loft is gone the glorious Apollo,

The blissful day departed from the night:

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

The great victor again is risen on height,

That for our quarrel to the death was wounded:

The sun that waxed all pale now shines so bright,

And darkness cleared, our faith is now refounded;

The knell of mercy from the heaven is sounded,

The Christians are delivered of their woe,

The heathen and their error are confounded:

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

For other works by this composer, see Nigel Butterley

HMP Home Page