Robert Lucas Pearsall, born near Bristol in England, devoted himself to music relatively late in life. After studying mostly in Germany, vocal music played a central role in his œuvre. Besides Latin sacred choral pieces, he composed numerous madrigals for the Bristol Madrigal Society, which he was instrumental in founding. Among these madrigals is the eight-voiced Great God of Love, the text of which was penned by the composer and which reflects the Victorian Age. The complex, sonorous weave of voices reminds us of the music of the 16th century, but is, at the same time, filled with a Romantic spirit.