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;...

Faithful Cross

Here's another movement from my Stations of the Cross -- not really suitable for today's feast of Ascension, but I didn't want to wait until Holy Cross Day to post it. Eventually I'll do a Latin setting of this text. In the meantime, this SATB a cappella version is richer in texture than my SA and organ setting from 2010. Faithful Cross, above all other, One and only noble tree: None in foliage,...

Ave Maria

It was Refreshment Sunday today, and we had at least one of my favourite Marian hymns. Here's my setting of the Ave Maria, then, played by robots: Ave Maria PDF for download. This is part of my Stations of the Cross, premiered in Aberdeen on 7th March; but I'm releasing it online now. Other pieces from the Stations that will work as stand-alone pieces will also be released in due course. As...