Jesus Christ the apple tree - Elizabeth Poston, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
22. 'Jesus Christ the apple tree'
From the album ‘Treasures of English Church Music’
Composer Elizabeth Poston
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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Jesus Christ the apple tree
Elizabeth Poston’s life in music embraced composition, broadcasting, and the editing and arranging of folk-songs and carols. 'Jesus Christ the apple tree', an original setting of a striking and visionary early American text, first appeared in 1967 in The Cambridge Hymnal and gained immediate popularity. The music, almost primitively simple and recalling a curious mixture of Satie, Poulenc and the American shape-note tunes, is of haunting beauty.
LYRICS:
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought;
I missed of all; but now I see
’Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
(Anon., collection of Joshua Smith,
New Hampshire, 1784)
Treasures of English Church Music
46 tracks of English a cappella church music, featuring John Rutter conducting the Cambridge Singers, and recorded in the inspiring setting of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral.
“A marvellous collection taken from all ages of Church Music – a mix of the popular and the slightly rarer. This is recorded in Ely Cathedral and it seems to have projected itself into some wonderfully lyric pieces – the opening track of Parsons Ave Maria sets the scene for the rest of the music. This is the Cambridge Singers at their best…” Cathedral Music
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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