Chancel Choir presents Rejoice in the Lamb On Sunday, June 13, the Chancel Choir will present Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb during the morning Worship service. Rejoice in the Lamb is one of the most engaging and delightful of all of Britten's choral works. Composed in 1943, it was commissioned by Reverend Walter Hussey, the vicar of St. Matthew's Church, Northampton, for the 50th anniversary of the church's consecration. The work is a setting of part of the long poem entitled Jubilate Agno by the 18th-century poet Christopher Smart. Smart's poem was written while he was incarcerated in a London insane asylum, suffering from a form of religious mania. While its striking imagery shows genius as well as madness, the main theme of the work, in Reverend Hussey's words, "is the worship of God by all created beings and things, each in its own way." Britten sets ten of Smart's sometimes chaotic passages, often in an uncomplicated musical style. After a simple introduction in which all creatures are called to magnify the Lord, characters from the Old Testament are cited, each joining with an animal in praising God. Three solo sections follow, continuing the theme of praising the Almighty in everyday action and deed. In "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry," the poet's beloved feline offers in its own way daily devotions to God his Savior. By merely twisting and stretching his body seven times round each morning, the cat acknowledges and serves the Living God in his movements. A brave-hearted mouse praises God in his courageous standoff with a cat, and, in a tender section, flowers are described as "peculiarly the poetry of Christ." A chorus setting recounts the poet's anguish over his mental illness and likens it to allegations of heresy leveled at Christ by the religious leaders of his day. A mystic alphabet of praise follows, ensued by a chaotic jubilation of musical instruments and their rhymes. In contrast to the preceding sections, a quiet and prayerful "Hallelujah" brings the work to a close. The musical scores used for the Worship service were given in memory of Kenny Stuber, by her children: Leslie Stuber-Borski, Kirsten Stuber and Jon Stuber.