Author: artsyhonker

The Doubter

Byartsyhonker January 27, 2014 0 Comments
This is another piece I wrote for the Small Choirs Competition. Unusually, I've used my own text for this one. I had planned to set the text just as a hymn, but enjoyed employing a bit of retrograde and some changes to timing in order to turn it into a more interesting anthem. It's set for unison voices but there's no reason you couldn't swap things around even more by setting some for lower and...

Versicles and Responses

Byartsyhonker January 27, 2014 0 Comments
I wrote these for the Small Choirs International competition. It's a fairly standard Versicles and Responses for Anglican Evensong services -- but being set for SAB instead of SATB it might be more suitable for small choirs or those with few men. License for the music is CC BY-SA, as usual. The MIDI file is a bit odd in the timing in one or two places: making the reciting notes display...

“I walked in darkness”: an anthem for Epiphany

Byartsyhonker January 13, 2014 0 Comments
I wrote this one for a competition at St Paul's Cathedral. They didn't get back to me, so I'm assuming that someone else won. The words are by Thomas Thurman, and were written at my request. I like his poetry generally, but have usually worked with finished works; it was interesting and delightful to see this poem taking shape and even have a bit of influence over the wording in one or two lines....

Liturgical hair: Going for Green

Byartsyhonker January 10, 2014 0 Comments
I have been dyeing my hair in liturgical colours since the beginning of Advent. This is to raise money for repairs to the bellows of our very fine Lewis pipe organ at St Andrew's. I've done purple, pink, purple with red, white/gold, and white with red. The sponsorship started well, and has now raised £1436 £1507.40: enough to sponsor 47 50 full days of hair in liturgical colours. Thanks so much...

What kept me away: Factors in church membership

Byartsyhonker January 10, 2014 0 Comments
This is the second in a series of posts examining my own experiences of leaving church and later returning to Christian faith and practice as a sort of case study, to see what can be learned about why people leave churches and why they come back. I've been thinking about this for a while, but some of it is triggered by recent comments about church growth. The previous post is about why I left...

Placeholder and Plans

Byartsyhonker January 5, 2014 0 Comments
I was going to post a choral anthem for a competition today, but I've realised judging hasn't happened yet. I don't want to accidentally disqualify myself by compromising anonymity, so you'll have to wait a little longer. I am hoping to have more compositions and arrangements to post this year. As an experiment, I am planning to spend ten hours per week composing, starting on 7th January. There...

Why I Left Church: Factors in church membership

Byartsyhonker January 3, 2014 8 Comments
This is the first in a series of posts examining my own experiences of leaving church and later returning to Christian faith and practice as a sort of case study, to see what can be learned about why people leave churches and why they come back. I've been stewing over this idea for a while, but it has been triggered by comments about church growth earlier this week. We are told people are leaving...

Reality Check

Byartsyhonker December 31, 2013 10 Comments
"The reality is that where you have a good vicar, you will find growing churches." --@ABCJustin earlier Today. All other factors being equal, this may be true. A "good" vicar or minister in a situation where a growth in church membership is possible is probably more likely, on the whole, to see that growth happen than a "bad" or mediocre one. Assuming growth in church membership is a good thing...