Dormi Jesu (1999) and the ravishing What sweeter music? (1988) were both written for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and its director of music Stephen Cleobury – for performance during the college’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols which is broadcast around the world on Christmas Eve. The words of Dormi Jesu (also known as The Virgin’s Cradle Hymn) come from a German print depicting the Virgin Mary which was discovered by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. John Rutter created the string arrangement especially for this recording. What sweeter music? (with words by the poet Robert Herrick) represented, says Rutter, ‘… the first opportunity I had to put pen to paper for the choir in my long and friendly association with King’s College. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to write for the slot in the service immediately after the reading about the journey of the Wise Men – the chance to highlight in the text the idea of the gifts that we can bring.’
from notes by Andrew Green © 2001
