This anthem was composed for the service of thanksgiving for a Civil Partnership in June 2011. In looking for a suitable text the composer turned to Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61), one of whose sonnets he had usedfor another wedding anthem (Love is beautiful indeed) a few years earlier.

As the title suggests, this highly expressive text puts into words the intense feeling of love and the mostly homophonic music reflects that throughluscious harmonies and beautifully shaped ...