Text sources for Pinkham's Wedding Cantata.

I. Rise up, my love

King James Bible, Cambridge Ed.; Song of Solomon 2:10-2:12

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the eart; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 6:1-6:3

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? That we may seek him with thee.

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lillies.

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine; he feedeth among the lillies.

II. Many waters

Song of Solomon 8:7

Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

III. Awake, O north wind

Song of Solomon 4:16

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden; that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruit.

IV. Epilogue: Set me as a seal

Song of Solomon 8:6

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Observations

Solomon 2:10-13, and 8:6-7, appear to be pretty popular biblical readings for weddings. Solomon 4:16 may be less common, but has obvious symmetry with the themes of 2:10-2:13.

The music appropriately focuses on the differing characters of these sections; the wind/spice-related settings of movements one and three share a dancing, jubilant rhythmic character, and seem to revel in the joy of love and the wedding occasion. In contrast, the text of 8:6-7 focuses on the profundity of love, and as such the settings of movements two and four reflect that profundity, using thicker choral textures, with lines suggesting reverence, in contrast to the dancing joy of the others.