The seven movements of this work depict different places in the British Isles – can you guess where they might be? It was written quite a long time ago, but is now ready to publish, thanks in no small part to the helpful advice of the celebrated Welsh harpist Angharad Huw, whose input renders the harp part within human capabilities!
Evensong in the Anglican Church contains three Collects, short texts to be said by the priest one after the other. The second and third are always the same, but the first varies according to the time of year. This is the Collect for the First Sunday in Advent, set for an unaccompanied SATB choir.
A light-hearted horn quartet, motivated by the difficulty in getting an ensemble together in the summer months!
The famous poem of John MacCrae is set for an unaccompanied SATB choir.
This piece for orchestra and solo horn quartet was written out of fear, because a suggestion was going round an orchestra I play in that we should perform the celebrated Schumann Konzertstueck for four horns and orchestra. Not to disparage the skills of the other horn players in the orchestra, it seemed wildly over-ambitious, so I thought it might be useful to have a back-up suggestion …. duration is about 17′
An octet for three trumpets, two horns, two trombones and a bass trombone. The piece tries to convey the moods of different times of day and weather conditions on Bodmin Moor, and alludes to the Cornish character of the place. Performance time 7’15”.
John Donne’s famous sonnet, set for unaccompanied SATB choir.
This work is for unaccompanied SATB choir, divided into the Responsories for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The texts are short biblical passages, to be sung after the lessons of Tenebrae; see the Wikipedia article for more information. These settings are all quite short (about 1 minute on average), so may be suitable for contemporary use.
This short theme and variations on Was lebet, was schwebet was first performed at St Andrew’s Church, Chesterton at the Christmas Eve carol service 2024.
What will the future hold for the USA? Words cannot express my dismay, perhaps music can. Visit the Orchestral page and you will understand.