Ego flos campi

Description

Duration: 5 min.

Text:
Latin
Vulgate

Premiere:
May 28th, 2008<br/ >Church of St. John the Evangelist, Boston, MA
Hillary Nicholson, mezzo-soprano
Schola Cantorum of St. John’s
James Busby, piano

Text & Translation:
Ego flos campi et lilium convallium. Sicut lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filias. Sicut malum inter ligna silvarum sic dilectus meus inter filios. Sub umbra illius quam desideraveram sedi et fructus eius dulcis gutturi meo. Introduxit me in cellam vinariam ordinavit in me caritatem. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis quia amore langueo.

I am the rose of the field, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among his sons. I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick with love.
— Canticum canticorum 2: 1- 5

Performance notes:
Ego flos campi is a song of desire from a woman to her lover, and though the text has come to have sacred connotations to the Virgin Mary, should be performed with more a sense of the romantic than a sense of the sacred. The solos at measure 7 and measure 48, can be performed solo or tutti and should be performed with a languid sense of rhythmic freedom. If sung by a soloist, the soloist would preferably be a female voice, a soprano or mezzo-soprano, to reflect the speaker of this selection from the Song of Songs. The soprano part at measure 46 is not a divisi but rather an ossia. One melody or the other should be taken, but not both.