John Donne
John Donne’s poems move between erotic wit and hard-won faith, built from paradox, abrupt openings and metaphysical conceit. On these recordings his words are set anew for singing, devotion and reflection.
Donne wrote sonnets, love lyrics, elegies, satires and religious verse, and later sermons that still carry the same tense syntax and everyday speech rhythms. The early work is sharp and sensual; the later Holy Sonnets and meditations face death, judgment and true religion without smoothing the argument. He is remembered for the extended conceit that yokes unlike things into one idea, and for a tough eloquence that resists easy piety. Jim Minchin’s settings draw on that body of soul poetry so the old words can be sung again in contemporary church and concert.
Compositions by John Donne appear on
Bards of Faith and Passion
Jim Minchin sets poems by writers at play or at odds with eternity: soul-poet lyrics across the centuries, from anonymous Latin verse and the metaphysicals to Yeats, Shakespeare and living voices.
Move Two Mix: Music for the Contemporary Church
Move Two Mix gathers religious songs and hymns with music by Jim Minchin, marrying familiar sacred texts to jazz- and folk-inflected settings. First issued in 1968, this pioneering Melbourne recording brought contemporary idioms into church worship.