To Sail Beyond the Sunset

Here's one I made earlier! I wrote this in autumn 2006; I'd asked for texts to set, and my then-sweetheart suggested these lines by Tennyson: Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will...

Thaw

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 instead. In the meantime, this piece might make a good encore piece for a small community choir, or fit well with other pieces about spring or awakening. Thaw Over the land freckled with snow...

Trinitie Sunday

A few weeks ago when Fr Duncan and I were discussing hymn lists, he said he'd like to have a lot of George Herbert this Sunday. It seemed like as good a reason as any to write an anthem. I launched into a setting of "Love (III)" but it didn't quite "sit" right, wasn't working out, and was perhaps a little long. So instead I decided to set the poem "Trinitie Sunday" as an anthem. It isn't Trinity...

Pied Beauty

A few weeks ago I spied a call for scores with a theme of nature, one or two parts and accompanied by piano. I asked on Twitter for suitable texts, preferably not too church-y because the context wasn't a liturgical one. One text that caught my eye is "Thaw" by Edward Thomas; I will post about it separately once it is complete. I believe Pete Phillips is the person who first suggested this text...

Early Music Experiences

Ruth of Moss and Jones asks: What are your earliest music experiences? What do you remember, perhaps vaguely, being played in your house when you were a toddler / pre-school aged child? This is interesting: I think for me, the first question and the second aren't necessarily the same. My instinctive answer to "What are your earliest music experiences", you see, isn't to do with listening to music...

Transfiguration: updated

I've corrected Transfiguration, which I wrote in 2012. The new edition corrects some slightly dodgy Italian and also one of those pesky errors where Sibelius thinks it's okay to put two quaver rests instead of one crotchet rest. I have also added the file to the Choral Public Domain Library. This will be one of around five pieces performed at the Small Choirs Festival on 2nd February. We also...

Evensong at St Paul’s — from the inside

This week I am singing with the Ontario Cathedral Singers as they are doing a "cathedral week", singing services in cathedrals while the regular choristers are away. I met their director, and had an organ lesson with him, this past summer while visiting my parents in Canada. We've sung two services in St Paul's so far. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll be at Southwark Cathedral for Evensong at 5.30pm,...

Good problems

It's getting near the time for the annual Carol Service at St Andrew's Leytonstone, and rehearsals started last night. For the Carol Service we have a "Community Choir" -- people from the community, and people from church who don't usually sing in the choir, join us for four rehearsals (plus a run-through on the day) so that we can do some repertoire that just won't work with lower numbers. The...

Transfiguration

One of the challenges of my job is finding music appropriate for our small choir at St Andrew's. The Anglican choral tradition is wonderful and beautiful and has a tendency to assume you have altos, tenors, basses and a positive horde of boy sopranos at your disposal. The reality is a bit different, and attempting the music of a large, well-stocked cathedral when we are a tiny parish with an...

St Paul’s Evensong at OccupyLSX

I didn't think, when I got up this morning, that I would somehow wind up leading a BCP Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral.The cathedral has had Occupy LSX, a protest camp, on their doorstep for the past week. Last weekend the Canon Chancellor, Revd Dr Giles Fraser, told the police to leave the protesters alone. As the week has worn on and the tents have stayed up, the cathedral has been operating on...