In Carmel's Shade - James MacMillan

This is an approachable and affecting setting of a devotional poem by the revered Carmelite nun St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–97). The choral writing, marked ‘placid’, comprises simple four-part homophony. The organ part weaves a limpid, measured monophonic line, representing the lyre of the poem, and is scored for manuals, save for one sustained pedal note. The piece slowly builds from its soft commencement to a fortissimo climax at ‘consume away’ before falling away to soft, unison monotones for the final line.