When John Henry Newman, who later became a Catholic cardinal, fell ill as a young priest on a trip to Sicily in 1833 and had to wait impatiently for his journey home to England, he wrote his famous poem: Lead, Kindly Light. The poem became popular as an English hymn thanks to John Bacchus Dykes' 1868 setting to music. Newman: ‘Finally, I arrived in Marseille in an orange boat. At that time, I wrote the lines “Lead, kindly light”, which have since become very well known. We lay in the Strait of Bonifacio for a whole week in a calm. I wrote poems throughout the entire crossing’ (Newman).

The poem refers theologically to the account in the biblical book of Exodus 13:21-22: ‘Adonai went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. So they could travel day and night. The pillar of cloud did not depart from the top of the people by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.’
As a half-Jew (her father was Catholic, her mother Jewish), Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans had to give up composing and performing during the Nazi occupation. She was only able to work as a pianist and artist in small circles and earn a living. In a courageous initiative and thanks to her contacts with conductor Willem Mengelberg, she managed to secure the release of her mother, who had already been arrested, and save her from deportation to a concentration camp.

After this dark and difficult period, Henriette Bosmans began composing again towards the end of the Second World War and, among other things, set John Henry Newman's poem ‘Lead, kindly Light’ to music as an art song. First for soprano and piano, later also for soprano and orchestra. The premiere took place after the end of the war on 3 November 1945, performed by Jo Vincent, soprano, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. The poem testifies to the belief in the ever-illuminating presence of mysterious transcendence (the ‘pillar of fire’ from Ex 13!)) both in the course of history and in personal life. Even in dark times, the believer should find hope and confidence in the next step.

Listen here! (approx. 5 1/2 min.)
Piano version
Orchestral version