Valley of Dry Bones
(2022. Solo soprano, SATB choir (with divisi), optional organ. 6')
Valley of Dry Bones is a six-minute-long anthem for solo soprano and choir, with text taken from Ezekiel 37; its subject matter would make it especially suitable for a Lent or Pentecost service. The piece captures the journey of Ezekiel's vision from one of strangeness and terror to one of hope and love.
A perusal score is available here.
Dancing
(2022. SATB choir with divisi and optional accompaniment [piano or organ]. 2')
Dancing is a new Advent carol with words by Godfrey Rust.
The poem was written to follow the reading of Luke 2:1-7; it juxtaposes the mystery of the incarnation with the mundanity and poverty of a stable in Bethlehem. It would be suitable for any Christmas or Advent service, or for Epiphany.
See the music here.
All income from the sale of Dancing goes to support two schools in Jos, Nigeria.
Everything
(2021. 8+ voices; designed for live performance on Zoom. 10')
Everything is a piece created to be sung live on Zoom by musicians of any level of experience. More information about it can be found on the Zoom Sings page.
O Radix Jesse
(2014. SATB choir and organ. 5')
O radix Jesse supplices
Te nos inuocamus;
Veni vt nos liberes
Quem iam expectamus.
O of Jesse thow holy rote,
That to thi pepill arte syker merke,
We calle to the; be thow oure bote,
In the that we gronde all owre werke.
Thy laude ys exalted by lordes and kynges;
No man to prayse the may suffice;
Off the spryngith vertu and all gode thynges;
Come and delyuere vs fro owre malice.
Off the may no malice growe,
That thou thyselue arte pure godenesse;
In the be rotedde what we showe,
And graunte ows blisse after owre decesse.
— Anonymous text from the Ritson Manuscript.
Perusal score available here.
Recorded by the Choir of King's College London, conducted by Joseph Fort, for the Delphian CD Advent Carols from King's College London.
Rejoice in the Lord Always
(2014. SSATB choir. 4')
Text from Philippians 4:4-7. Written in loving memory of Colin Duckworth.
Perusal score available here. Please contact me for a recording.
O holy and ever-blessed Spirit
(2013. SATB choir with divisi. 8')
O Holy and ever blessed Spirit, who did overshadow the Holy Virgin-Mother of our Lord, and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner; be pleased to overshadow our souls, and enlighten our spirit, that we may conceive the holy Jesus in our heart, and may bear him in our mind, and may grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ, to be perfect men and women in Christ Jesus. Amen.
— Jeremy Taylor, from Rule and Exercises of Holy Living.
Perusal score available here.
sunt etenim pennae volucres mihi
(2012. three sopranos, three mezzo-sopranos. 6')
Discantus, a group of female singers who specialise in music of the first half of last millenium, commissioned this piece to complement a programme of music from the Winchester Troper, one of the oldest – if not the oldest – source of notated polyphonic music.
Its text is the first poem of the fourth book of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, describing a soul rising – with the wings given it by philosophy – through many layers of the sky to be with its creator, then looking down on the dark earth below, and seeing its troubled, oppressed inhabitants as exiles from their true home. I recommend David R. Slavitt's translation, readable here.
This recording is from Discantus' CD Music for a King.
Perusal score available here.