This recording presents three different, utterly contrasting responses to the quest for expression and the solution to the old problem of how to merge text and music into a unity. The common theme linking these compositions, "The Passion and Pains of Love", has been wrested from the texts of these choral works: they are poetic declarations of love, descriptions of nature with erotic and intimate imagery, poems that speak of unfulfilled yearning and breaking hearts. Their poetic quality opens a range of expression every bit as varied as the three musical settings they stimulated.