Abstract
Pastoralism can take on utopian contexts as well as Arcadian ones, imagining a potentially brighter future rather than an idealized and fictitious past. While traditional metaphors of Christ as the Good Shepherd seem appropriate in such a context, several British composers engage with a broader utopian perspective largely detached from narrowly dogmatic forms of religious belief. Their visionary ethos—in some cases, reflecting the prophetic spirituality of figures like William Blake—provides a means of engaging with utopian thought in music that has been largely overlooked, providing new and often unexpected revelations about the significance of their pastoral works.
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