works:SATB – Page 3 – The Artsy Honker

Advent — Christina Rosetti

Byartsyhonker December 4, 2015 0 Comments

We're well into December and there is so much going on that is very focused on Christmas; yet this is still Advent, a season of preparation. Advent is my SATB setting of Christina Rosetti's poem by the same name: 'Come,' Thou dost say to Angels, To blessed Spirits, 'Come': 'Come,' to the lambs of Thine own flock, Thy little ones, 'Come home.' 'Come,' from the many-mansioned house The gracious...

Continuum (a vilanelle for a lost one)

Byartsyhonker July 27, 2015 0 Comments

My grandmother, Mildred Rose, was a poet; when I was a child she published a book of poetry. Here is one of the poems: I miss you when roots waken to spring rain and more when summer penetrates the land though friends still tell me time will ease my pain. When grave earth flares to lively green again and star-eyed lovers walk, quick hand in hand, I miss you when roots waken to spring rain. As...

Magnificat

Byartsyhonker May 31, 2015 0 Comments

The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is transferred from 31st May to 1st June this year, because Trinity Sunday is more important; but we did get some words to Mary by Athelstan Riley in one of our hymns this morning: "Thou Bearer of the eternal Word, Most gracious, magnify the Lord." I note that Athelstan Riley died in 1945, which means his words become public domain this year (or next? I get...

The Contrite Heart

Byartsyhonker March 6, 2015 1 Comment

Looking for texts to set (I am always looking for texts to set) I stumbled over this one by William Cowper. It looks to me to be a response to Psalm 51: The Lord will happiness divine On contrite hearts bestow; Then tell me, gracious God, is mine A contrite heart or no? I hear, but seem to hear in vain, Insensible as steel; If aught is felt, ‘tis only pain, To find I cannot feel. I sometimes...

Nunc dimittis

Byartsyhonker February 2, 2015 0 Comments

Today is Candlemas. Yesterday I preached at Christ Church Wanstead for the occasion; today I put the finishing touches on my setting of the Nunc dimittis. It's SATB a capella, and a bit crunchy in places; being a bit calmer than some settings, it would be particularly appropriate for use during a service of sung Compline. I've put it up at CPDL as usual but it won't be visible there for another...

Jubilate Amen

Byartsyhonker October 20, 2014 0 Comments

Just a simple sleepy little piece, this -- almost a hymn rather than an anthem, and almost not a hymn in that it straddles the line between describing worship and participating -- to some words by Thomas Moore: Hark! the vesper hymn is stealing o'er the waters soft and clear; nearer yet and nearer pealing and now bursts upon the ear: Jubilate amen! Farther now, now farther stealing soft it fades...

Sweet Spirit, Comfort Me

Byartsyhonker September 1, 2014 0 Comments

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,...

Pied Beauty — recording

Byartsyhonker August 17, 2014 0 Comments

@pmphillips suggested this text to me when I was looking for something a bit creation-y for a unison/2-part community songbook. I didn't set it for that project, but instead in SATB. It's short and sweet, and might be suitable for an introit at a Harvest Evensong or similar. I'm pleased to be able to offer a demo recording of this, both at Soundcloud (where you can download the recording) and,...

Christ Has No Body Now on Earth But Ours

Byartsyhonker August 5, 2014 0 Comments

I wrote this in 2009 for the Rev Dr Catherine Dowland Pillinger. Before she was ordained she was the Head of Student Services at Trinity College of Music. She was a great support to me while there, and I wanted to thank her in a way appropriate to her new role. I agonised over the text: I had no desire at that stage to call myself Christian, but I also saw clearly that her care for the students...

I Am

Byartsyhonker June 29, 2014 0 Comments

I wrote this, like "The Message of the Wind", for the Nicola Dando Choral Composition Prize. The judges didn't choose it but I still like it. The poem, written by John Clare, seems to have a few different versions of the fifth line in the first stanza. I set the one that I was given for the competition: "Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost", which rhymes with the final line of the poem;...