May You Be Blessed for Ever, Lord

To set this prayer by St. Teresa of Avila, Mawby chose a contemplative, rubato tempo and a harmonically dense musical language to dwell on the topic of God's love for us. A soprano soloist sings the words of the prayer while a divisi SATB choir responds with the words "may you be blessed" as a kind of mantra, usually beginning with a dissonant chord resolving on the word "blessed." This is a challenging setting for advanced choirs.