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 YouTube:
You can download the audio from Soundcloud and the sheet music from the Choral Public Domain Library.
In the hour of my distress,
When temptations me oppress,
And when I my sins confess,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!When I lie within my bed,
Sick in heart and sick in head,
And with doubts discomforted,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!When the house doth sigh and weep,
And the world is drown’d in sleep,
Yet mine eyes the watch do keep,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!
As usual, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, or CC BY-SA for short. That means you can use this music for any purpose, absolutely free, as long as you attribute me and you share any derivative works under a similar license. If you want to drop me an e-mail, tweet or comment letting me know that you’re going to sing it, that’s even better, of course: to my knowledge, it has not yet been performed. The range of this piece makes it quite challenging, but I hope the repetition makes it accessible even to audiences who are unaccustomed to this type of choral music.
If you want to support me in making more music like this, please tell at least one other person about this piece. If you want to do more than that, the equivalent of buying me a hot chocolate every time I write another work (about once a month), you could become a patron.