How 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 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 ArticlePied Beauty — recording
@pmphillips suggested this text to me when I was looking for something a bit creation-y for a unison/2-part community songbook. I didn’t set it for that project, but instead in SATB. It’s short and...
View ArticleSweet Spirit, Comfort Me
I wrote this in 2012 for a competition at St Paul’s. Clerical error on my part meant I wasn’t even in with a chance! But I am happy with what I wrote. Thanks to Matthew Curtis I now have a recording on...
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...
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 ArticleJubilate Amen
Just a simple sleepy little piece, this — almost a hymn rather than an anthem, and almost not a hymn in that it straddles the line between describing worship and participating — to some words by Thomas...
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Transfiguration — Demo recording
“Transfiguration-Mariawald-Abbey” by Master of St Severin – Victoria and Albert Museum, [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Some time ago I set Thomas Thurman’s poem,...
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Nunc dimittis
Today is Candlemas. Yesterday I preached at Christ Church Wanstead for the occasion; today I put the finishing touches on my setting of the Nunc dimittis. It’s SATB a capella, and a bit crunchy in...
View ArticlePatreon, one year on
It’s a little over a year since I first set up a page on Patreon, with a view to getting paid for some of my composing. I’ve been promising to write a post about my experiences, and I’m finding the...
View ArticleMagnificat
The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is transferred from 31st May to 1st June this year, because Trinity Sunday is more important; but we did get some words to Mary by Athelstan Riley in one of our...
View ArticleSong of Easter
Here’s one I wrote earlier, but haven’t yet posted. It has more instrumentation than my music usually does! The sheet music is available from the Choral Public Domain Library, and is under a Creative...
View ArticleChristmas Carols with the London Gallery Quire
Wednesday 2nd December 2015 7.00pm Christmas Carols with the London Gallery Quire Tickets £6 on the door St George’s German Lutheran Church 55Alie Street London E1 8EB (Located at the junction of Alie...
View ArticleAdvent — Christina Rosetti
We’re well into December and there is so much going on that is very focused on Christmas; yet this is still Advent, a season of preparation. Advent is my SATB setting of Christina Rosetti’s poem by the...
View ArticlePied Beauty — recording
@pmphillips suggested this text to me when I was looking for something a bit creation-y for a unison/2-part community songbook. I didn’t set it for that project, but instead in SATB. It’s short and...
View ArticleSweet Spirit, Comfort Me
I wrote this in 2012 for a competition at St Paul’s. Clerical error on my part meant I wasn’t even in with a chance! But I am happy with what I wrote. Thanks to Matthew Curtis I now have a recording on...
View ArticleJubilate Amen
Just a simple sleepy little piece, this — almost a hymn rather than an anthem, and almost not a hymn in that it straddles the line between describing worship and participating — to some words by Thomas...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sonnet 27
The Fourth Choir had a composing competition, which I entered. I didn’t make their shortlist, so here is my setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 27....
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Talvilaulu — Song of the Winter
In 2015, I had the enjoyable experience of attending the Anglo Nordic Baltic Theological Conference, in Turku, Finland. Participants presented informal papers by day, and in the evening there was...
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