The invitation to compose Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) came from the late Anthony Smith, president of Magdalen College, Oxford. He longed for a choral work that could be sung by young people all over the world — a kind of update of the Messiah, so to speak. Paul McCartney visited Magdalen's daily services several times to soak up the 500-year-old choral tradition. He did not become a second
… Handel: his Ecce Cor Meum is more a potpourri of pleasant melodies than a classically supported oratorio. It is all the more admirable what this 'amateur' achieves in the beautifully constructed final movement. Pay particular attention to what follows from the interruption of the organ. And to the beautiful sequence of minor-major seventh chords (with an excuse for the jargon) in the last minutes. 'Here in my music I show you my heart', says the composer. (HJ)more
