I aten’t ded…

It's been a while! Due to some hosting shenanigans this website stopped working at some point in 2020 and, er, I only just got it back up and running. Oops.In the meantime, I've gotten an MPhil in contemporary sacred choral composition from the University of Aberdeen, and taken up allotment gardening. I'm also the Commissioned Pastoral Assistant at my church, St John the Evangelist, Brownswood...

Sung Compline

I couldn't get to church this morning: we're socially isolating in this household while my spouse gets over a cough. This evening at 8pm GMT I will be leading a live-streamed service of Sung Compline. Please join me. The text is Common Worship Compline in Traditional Language. This is a test:

Caritas Dei

Romans 5:5b (alt.) Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris, alleluia: per inhabitantem Spiritum eius in nobis, alleluia. (God's love has been poured into our hearts, alleluia: Through the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, alleluia.) Psalm 103:1 Benedic anima mea Domino et omnia a quae intra me sunt, nomini sancto eius. (Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his Holy...

Double Chant in G Major

It's been a while since I wrote an Anglican chant, so here's another. I was thinking broadly of Psalm 27 when I wrote it, but it's in the nature of Anglican chant that it isn't fixed to one set of words, so I present it here with no text. There are some robots singing it (they don't do words either): And there's a PDF to download. As usual, it's CC by-SA which means you can copy it as long as...

NORBERG — In memoriam Roy Gordon Norberg, 1944-2019

Last month, Roy Norberg died. Roy was the father of a friend I spent many happy hours with in childhood. I can remember him making sure, when I was visiting for Christmas, that I had a performance opportunity or two; and as I got older and played more instruments and started arranging, he was supportive of my efforts in that direction. He was also an organist, you see, and a much-loved teacher;...

I sing of a maiden

Here is my .PDF of "I sing of a maiden" I sing of a maiden PDF file. Here is the robot clarionet rendition: Text: I sing of a maiden that is makeless; King of all kings to her son she ches. He came all so still where his mother was As dew in April that falleth on the grass: He came all so still to his mother's bower, As dew in April that falleth on the flower. He came all so still where his...

This Endris Night

If you're looking for a relatively straightforward SATB carol, you might enjoy my setting of This Endris Night: This endris night, I saw a sight, A star as bright as day, And ever among this maiden sung, Lully, by by, lullay. 1. This lovely lady sat and sang, and to her child did say, My son, my brother, my father dear, why liest thou thus in hay? My sweet bird, though it betide, thou not be...

Good Friday

Here's my setting of 'Good Friday' by Christina Rossetti: Am I a stone and not a sheep That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss, And yet not weep? Not so those women loved Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; Not so the thief was moved; Not so the Sun and Moon Which hid their faces in a starless sky, A...

The Passion

I chose this poem by George Herbert for Station X in my Stations of the Cross, "Jesus is Stripped". To have our clothing removed, particularly forcibly, is so vulnerable; but in asking Jesus to fill the emptiness of his heart and drive out sin, Herbert mirrors that vulnerability. Or so it seems to me, anyway... The Passion Since blood is fittest, Lord, to write Thy sorrows in, and bloody fight;...

Ave Verum Corpus

Here is my setting of the Ave Verum Corpus: Ave Verum Corpus PDF file Ave, verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine: vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine: cuius latus perforatum unda fluxit sanguine: esto nobis praegustatum, in mortis examine. O dulcis, O pie, O Jesu, Fili Mariae. Miserere mei. Amen. In English: Hail the true body, born of the Virgin Mary: You who truly suffered and were...