Category: compositions

There Is No Rose

Byartsyhonker January 31, 2019 0 Comments
Here is my setting of an anonymous text from around 1420: It was wonderful to compose this for the Cathedral Singers of Ontario, who I've sung with for many years on their visits to the UK, and to sing it with them at Canterbury Cathedral early this month. 1. There is no rose of such virtue As is the rose that bare Jesu; Alleluia. 2. For in this rose contained was Heaven and earth in little...

O Nata Lux

Byartsyhonker December 31, 2018 0 Comments
I've had my head down a lot recently with PhD work but here is one I wrote earlier: an a cappella SSA setting of O nata lux. It's traditionally a text used for the Transfiguration -- 6th August, but the readings also come up at the last Sunday before Lent. No recording yet, but there is a .pdf: O nata lux PDF and, as usual, robot flutes: O nata lux de lumine, Jesu redemptor saeculi, Dignare...

Vintry

Byartsyhonker October 31, 2018 0 Comments
I've actually finished a fair amount of music this month: a setting of the beginning of Psalm 19, which was one of the pieces featured in my MPhil upgrade (which I passed, hurrah!), and also a setting of "There Is No Rose of Such Virtue" to have its world premiere in January, all being well. Obviously I can't put something I've promised as a world premiere online before then; and in the meantme,...

Waterbeach

Byartsyhonker July 31, 2018 0 Comments
I'm singing in Ely Cathedral this week, and staying in a guest house in Waterbeach, so I wrote a hymn tune today. Here are the words, by Nathaniel Cotton: 1. Affliction is a stormy deep, Where wave resounds to wave; Though o'er my head the billows roll, I know the Lord can save. 2. The hand that now withholds my joys Can reinstate my peace: And He who bade the tempest roar, Can bid that tempest...

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Byartsyhonker May 23, 2018 0 Comments
Here's a little piece for the autumn, a setting of Emily Brontë's poem "Fall, Leaves, Fall" for AATTBarB or SATTBarB a cappella; I'm thinking about doing an upper voices only arrangement, too, but I haven't done anything about it just yet. I know, I know, it isn't autumn yet! But it is the time of year when some choirs are thinking about what they will programme for the next year. Fall, leaves,...

Music for Lent 1: Angelis suis

Byartsyhonker February 14, 2018 0 Comments
(If I've done this correctly it should post on Wednesday night, UK time...) Ready or not, Lent is upon us. In January, Sally Martin-Brown asked me if I had anything suitable for the University of London Church Choir visit to Jerusalem. I had a rummage through my notebooks, sure I'd started something at some point, and sure enough, there was a sort of skeleton of this piece, the Latin version of...

Colwall 87 87 887 (Lo, in the wilderness a voice)

Byartsyhonker December 7, 2017 0 Comments
I have a new project, Cecilia's List, where (among other things) I make weekly recommendations for music composed by women and other underrepresented groups that's suitable for church use. I've only really just gotten started, and so I still have a lot of music to look through and add. This week I've had a bit of a struggle trying to find something suitable for Advent II, which is very much John...

I would not paint — a picture —

Byartsyhonker November 30, 2017 0 Comments
I was delighted to be asked to write a piece for the Chapel Choir of King's College, Aberdeen, for them to sing on St Cecilia's Day this year. I chose this text by Emily Dickinson at the suggestion of Catherine Fox: I would not paint — a picture — I'd rather be the One It's bright impossibility To dwell — delicious — on — And wonder how the fingers feel Whose rare — celestial — stir...

An Arab Love-Song

Byartsyhonker October 31, 2017 0 Comments
This is one of the pieces from the Musical Hat Draw. I really enjoyed that project, but it didn't result in a single sale of music! So I've decided to release the pieces as I normally would, through Patreon, instead. This text was suggested by TJA Thurman, but written by Francis Thompson. It's for a small or flexible choir, with piano accompaniment. An Arab Love-Song Francis Thompson (1859-1907)...

Hilltop 55 54 D

Byartsyhonker September 29, 2017 0 Comments
Another hymn tune! This one, I think, might be suitable for Harvest, though the Revd Ally Barrett based it on the theology behind the gospel story about tax: ‘render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s; render to God that which belongs to God’. You can read some more of her hymns on her website and there is also information there about permission to use the text in worship. Here we are giving,...