Evensong at St Paul’s — from the inside
This week I am singing with the Ontario Cathedral Singers as they are doing a “cathedral week”, singing services in cathedrals while the regular choristers are away. I met their director, and had an...
View ArticleTransfiguration: updated
I’ve corrected Transfiguration, which I wrote in 2012. The new edition corrects some slightly dodgy Italian and also one of those pesky errors where Sibelius thinks it’s okay to put two quaver rests...
View ArticleEarly Music Experiences
Ruth of Moss and Jones asks: What are your earliest music experiences? What do you remember, perhaps vaguely, being played in your house when you were a toddler / pre-school aged child? This is...
View ArticlePied Beauty
A few weeks ago I spied a call for scores with a theme of nature, one or two parts and accompanied by piano. I asked on Twitter for suitable texts, preferably not too church-y because the context...
View ArticleTrinitie Sunday
A few weeks ago when Fr Duncan and I were discussing hymn lists, he said he’d like to have a lot of George Herbert this Sunday. It seemed like as good a reason as any to write an anthem. I launched...
View ArticleThaw
I wrote this for the Sing for Our Planet songbook — but it was just too short, one minute instead of five, and I didn’t like any of the things I tried to lengthen it. So, I submitted something else...
View ArticleHow I write songs
This is a description of how I go about composing choral works. I sometimes skip steps, sometimes take a lot longer over one step than other times. And of course, this is only what I do — others may...
View ArticleBenedictus
Some of my favourite words in the New Testament are from the Benedictus: said or sung at Morning Prayer in the Anglican tradition, this canticle is the song of Zechariah at the birth of his son, John...
View ArticleO come hither
One of the pleasures of singing and playing in the London Gallery Quire is being allowed to spring my music on them from time to time. A greater joy is the privilege of performing, from time to time,...
View ArticleTrinitie Sunday
A few weeks ago when Fr Duncan and I were discussing hymn lists, he said he’d like to have a lot of George Herbert this Sunday. It seemed like as good a reason as any to write an anthem. I launched...
View ArticleThaw
I wrote this for the Sing for Our Planet songbook — but it was just too short, one minute instead of five, and I didn’t like any of the things I tried to lengthen it. So, I submitted something else...
View ArticleTo Sail Beyond the Sunset
Here’s one I made earlier! I wrote this in autumn 2006; I’d asked for texts to set, and my then-sweetheart suggested these lines by Tennyson: Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world....
View ArticleEarly Music Experiences
Ruth of Moss and Jones asks: What are your earliest music experiences? What do you remember, perhaps vaguely, being played in your house when you were a toddler / pre-school aged child? This is...
View ArticlePied Beauty
A few weeks ago I spied a call for scores with a theme of nature, one or two parts and accompanied by piano. I asked on Twitter for suitable texts, preferably not too church-y because the context...
View ArticleI Am
I wrote this, like “The Message of the Wind“, for the Nicola Dando Choral Composition Prize. The judges didn’t choose it but I still like it. The poem, written by John Clare, seems to have a few...
View ArticleI walked in darkness: recording with video
I’m very pleased to be able to offer this video: Enjoy! If you’d like to sing this in your choir, the sheet music is available online for free. You have to print it yourself though! If you want to hear...
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Love (III)
At St Andrew’s Leytonstone we had the final service of our much-loved parish priest, Fr Duncan, this morning. I’ve interrupted the Song Cycle pilgrimage to come back and play. He is retiring and we...
View ArticleTo Sail Beyond the Sunset
Here’s one I made earlier! I wrote this in autumn 2006; I’d asked for texts to set, and my then-sweetheart suggested these lines by Tennyson: Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world....
View ArticleThe Message of the Wind
I have a new choral work up on the Choral Public Domain Library: The Message of the Wind. This was written for the Nicola Dando Choral Composition Prize, which this year had five set texts; in the end,...
View ArticleArt is not a democracy.
A friend and I have been e-mailing back and forth about some issues at her church — the usual sort of thing, some members of the congregation being unhappy with the style of music chosen by the...
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