BATH — The Oratorio Chorale will open its 38th season with “Songs from the British Isles,” a program featuring sacred and secular music from 19th and 20th century composers Britten, Elgar, Finzi, Howells and Holst.

Poets Robert Herrick, Henry Vaughan, George Lord Byron and the American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are also represented in the program. These works range from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Guest artist and accompanist for the concerts is Ray Cornils, municipal organist for the city of Portland, a post he has held since 1990. Since 1987, Cornils has also served as minister of music at First Parish Church, UCC, Brunswick, where he has built an extensive program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. Besides performances with the Oratorio Chorale and the Maine Music Society, Cornils performs regularly with Musica Tricinia, a group of two trumpets and organ.

Performances of this fall concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at the United Church of Christ in Bath, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at Sacred Heart Church in Yarmouth.

Director Peter Frewen said the texts set by Howells and Holst are sacred, while those by Britten and Finzi are secular. Except for “The Spanish Serenade,” Elgar’s texts are distinctly religious, but personal. Compositions by Britten and Finzi were each visualized as a set, one organized around the idea of flowers, the other around the voice of a single poet, Robert Bridges.

Most of Britten’s “Five Flower Songs” remind us about the brevity of time both in the garden and in life, except for “The Ballad of Green Broom,” which is lighthearted and witty, Frewen said.

Longfellow’s serenade is from his verse play, “The Spanish Student,” and was a popular text for parlor songs. The scene is evoked by a band of musicians serenading beneath his beloved’s balcony. Elgar’s music creates a Spanish-inflected instrumental melody.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, half-price for students and free for children under 12. They may be purchased from chorale members and at Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick; Now You’re Cooking and Etc. Finery in Bath; Sherman’s Books and Stationery in Freeport; and Clayton’s in Yarmouth.

For more information, visit www.oratoriochorale.org or call 725-1420.