The poetic text to John Rutter's There is a flower apparently comes from the pen of an obscure Catholic monk in the rural region of medieval English Shropshire. After languishing in anthologies of 15th century poetry for many years, the rustic images of this poem (amazingly produced by a poet apparently both deaf and blind) began to enjoy rehabilitation by English composers of the 20th century: Stanley Vann, John Jacob Niles, and Huw Morgan. John Rutter couldn't resist tossing his name in the hat, and he composed a rich and poignant setting at the "invitation" of the choral director at St. John's College (Cambridge), Dr. George Guest. Rutter treats his text with all due reverence and care.

The verses of this text are framed by iterations of a refrain that carefully sets out the central image of a verdant "Jesse tree." The Biblical "shoot of the stalk of Jesse," an Old Testament prophetic image (from Isaiah 11:1) of the Messiah as a direct descendant of the lineage of Jesse and King David, takes on a graphic addition in the "flower" that many medieval theologians saw; the tree of Jesse's lineage bore one exquisite blossom that was the Virgin Mary, and from that flower the sweetest fruit was her son, Jesus. The verses of the poem for There is a flower make explicit the metaphor of Mary and expand upon the beneficial effects of the flower's seed, which itself became a verdant and prolific flower that would spread to grace the "rich and poor of every land" and to "spring in gold."

Rutter's music for There is a flower walks a delicate balance between the simplicity of this text's imagery and the profundity of its metaphor. A simple soprano solo without accompaniment blooms as the first hint of floribunda, followed by a simple harmonic spreading among the women's voices for the first verse. As they gradually expand upon the solo's first shoot, the women's voices also produce some simple but direct madrigalisms: the sudden bass foundation on "grace" and the fleeting dissonances on "sorrow." The following three verses gradually sprout new shoots of melody and affect, until suddenly (after Christmas night) the "kinges three" arrive in male voices alone, with hints of organum. The final verse sings of angels coming to look upon the flower, and the tenor melody is graced throughout with cascades of "Alleluias" in the women's voices. The flower springs into "gold" amidst a vocal transformation into humming, and the solo voice shoots forth from this vocal loam once again.

© Timothy Dickey, Rovi