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The Full Story

Lyrics and Programme Notes

Here you will find the texts for each piece, programme notes, and recordings.

If the piece has been reviewed, the review is also included. 

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Ding Dong! Merrily on High (2016)

for SS & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This lighthearted arrangement for Upper Voices & piano is suitable for both girls’ choirs & adult, women’s choirs. It starts in 4-parts but after the opening ‘ding dongs’ is in 2-parts.

Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav'n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

E'en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And "io, io, io!"
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

2 minutes (£1.95)

Score

Recording

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Gabriel's Message (2020)

for SAT/B & piano/organ

In this version of the Basque carol, Gabriel’s Message, the angel Gabriel, and Mary have been cast as solo voices, with the rest of the choir taking on the role of narrator.  

 

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,

His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;

‘All hail’, said he, ‘thou lowly maiden Mary,

Most highly favoured lady.’ Gloria!

 

‘For known a blessed mother thou shalt be,

All generations laud and honour thee,

Thy Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,

Most highly favoured lady.’ Gloria!

 

Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head,

‘To me be as it pleaseth God’, she said, 

My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name.’

Most highly favoured lady. Gloria!

 

Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ was born

In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn,

And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:

‘Most highly favoured lady.’ Gloria!

2 minutes 20 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Gabriel's Message (2018)

for SSA & harp (or piano)

In this version of the Basque carol, Gabriel’s Message, the angel Gabriel, and Mary have been cast as solo voices, with the rest of the choir taking on the role of narrator.  

Please see above for text.

Review: 

Banks Music publications Kassian Choral Series - Choral music by Women Composers is well worth exploring. It includes works by Olivia Sparkhall, including some very attractive Christmas arrangements for upper voices. Her Gabriel's Message is based on the famous Basque folk melody and would be a very good choice for young singers, who might welcome some gentle harmonic support from an accompaniment at times. The piano or harp part is balanced beautifully with the voices throughout, with widely contrasting textures from gentle arpeggiated and tremolo chords to strong block chords. The composer also gives the opportunity for two solo voices that represent the angel Gabriel and Mary. A moment that I find particularly touching is when the SSA parts sing a cappella for 15 bars beginning with the text ‘Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head’. 

Joy Hill, Choir & Organ Magazine, August 2021.

3 minutes (£1.95)

Score

Recording

Dona nobis pacem (2018)

for SATB 

Dona nobis pacem was composed in 2018 to mark 100 years of female suffrage and the centenary of the armistice of WWI.

It was written in response to a ‘call for scores’ from a Scottish choir who were looking for a piece to be performed alongside Robert Carver’s Missa ‘L’homme armé’. The medieval European ‘pop’ song L’homme armé (The Armed Man) formed the basis of many Masses written by European Renaissance composers, but Carver was the only British composer to use the tune in his Mass-setting. I took the ‘dona nobis pacem’ from Carver’s Missa ‘L’homme armé’ as a literal starting point. Thus the piece is enveloped in the sound-world of Carver, whilst embracing more contemporary choral sonorities, to give a sense of it being as much about the ‘here and now’; as a homage to the past.

 

Dona nobis pacem is suffused with direct quotations from the medieval song L’homme armé. A particular characteristic of Carver’s style is his simultaneous, or almost simultaneous use of both B-natural and B-flat. I have taken advantage of this enjoyment of that particular false relation to add extra colour to this setting.

 

This piece was short-listed in the Cappella Nova Composers' Competition.

3 minutes 30 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Es ist ein' Ros' (2020)

for SS & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824). Originally published as a solo song, in this edition a sympathetic second soprano line has been added, and the original words of the poem, Der Auferstehungsmorgen, have been replaced with the well-known Marian text Es ist ein’ Ros’. The words can be found in the Gebetbuchlein des Frater Conradus (Father Conrad’s little prayer-book, c.1582).

1. Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen

Aus einer Wurzel zart,

Als uns die Alten sungen:

Aus Jesse kam die Art;

Und hat ein Blümlein bracht,

Mitten im kalten Winter,

Wohl zu der halben Nacht.

 

3. Wir bitten dich von Herzen,

Maria, Rose zart,

Durch dieses Blümlein’s Schmerzen,

Die er empfunden hat

Wollst uns behülflich sein,

Daß wir ihm mögen machen

Eine Wohnung hübsch und fein!

3 minutes (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Gebet in der Christnacht (2019)

for SATB

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement of a song by Fanny Hensel. 

Translation from German:

 

O love that suffered on the cross, 

O love that conquered even death 

For all the children of men. 

Consider on this holy night,

This night that brought you down to us, 

These souls that long for you!                                       

 

O love who sent forth the star 

Into the distant Orient, 

The Kings to summon; 

Who through the mouth of its messenger 

Announced with force to the shepherds poor, 

How quietly you came to be?        

 

Another pious shepherdess lies 

Lulled in sightless slumber 

And dreams of green trees. 

And does not in front of her window sing 

An angel: 'Esther, let me in, 

The Saviour is born?' 

2 minutes 20 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

2. Das Röslein, das ich meine, 

Davon Jesaias sagt,

Ist Maria die reine,

Die uns dies Blümlein bracht;

Aus Gottes ew’gem Rat 

Hat sie ein Kindlein geboren,

Ist bleiben eine reine Magd.

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Mass (2019)

for unison voices & piano

In development

7 minutes

Score

Recording

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Gebet in der Christnacht (2019)

for SSA & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement of a song by Fanny Hensel.  

Translation from German:

 

O love that suffered on the cross, 

O love that conquered even death 

For all the children of men. 

Consider on this holy night,

This night that brought you down to us, 

These souls that long for you!                                       

 

O love who sent forth the star 

Into the distant Orient, 

The Kings to summon; 

Who through the mouth of its messenger 

Announced with force to the shepherds poor, 

How quietly you came to be?        

 

Another pious shepherdess lies 

Lulled in sightless slumber 

And dreams of green trees. 

And does not in front of her window sing 

An angel: 'Esther, let me in, 

The Saviour is born?' 

2 minutes 45 seconds (£1.99)

Score

Recording

Che si può fare? (2019)

for SSA & piano (or organ)

This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Barbara Strozzi.

Che si può fare?

Le stelle ribelle non hanno pietà;

s‘el cielo non dà un influsso di pace al mio penare,

Che si può fare?

Che si può dire?

How can I prosper?

The stars have no mercy against me they rise, against me the stars rebel.

If heaven does not give me peace to my suffering,

How can I prosper?

What can be spoken?

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) was a prolific publisher of her songs. This one comes from her Opus 8 collection, published in 1664. In the 17th century, it was unusual for a composer to publish so much; that Strozzi did so resulted in considerable public recognition for her. It has also ensured her legacy, latterly, as some of the original publications are freely available. Che si può fare? exists as a notated melody (albeit in a less recognisable notation) along with the written-out passacaglia bass line. Nothing else exists and has had to be constructed afresh. 

3 minutes 30 seconds (£1.95)

Score

Recording

The Desert (2020)

for SATB & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement for SATB and piano of a carol by Emma Mundella. The Desert is from the 1892 Novello publication, Twelve New Carols for Christmastide, written by Shapcott Wensley, with each poem set to music by a different composer. The modest, strophic setting has been expanded for this edition, with both an accompaniment and a descant added to further bring the poem to life. 

"hauntingly beautiful" John C. Hughes, National Collegiate Choral Organisation Online Journal

Born and brought up in Nottingham, England, Emma Mundella was one of the first students to attend the newly-opened Royal College of Music in London. She studied composition and received piano, organ and singing lessons. She became a music teacher at Wimbledon High School for Girls and continued to compose and perform throughout her career, writing music for her students, as well as editing The Day School Hymnbook. 

2 minutes 45 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

The Desert (2020)

for SSA & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Emma Mundella. The Desert is from the 1892 Novello publication, Twelve New Carols for Christmastide, written by Shapcott Wensley, with each poem set to music by a different composer. The modest, strophic setting has been expanded for this edition, with both an accompaniment and a descant added to further bring the poem to life. 

"hauntingly beautiful" John C. Hughes, National Collegiate Choral Organisation Online Journal

Born and brought up in Nottingham, England, Emma Mundella was one of the first students to attend the newly-opened Royal College of Music in London. She studied composition and received piano, organ and singing lessons. She became a music teacher at Wimbledon High School for Girls and continued to compose and perform throughout her career, writing music for her students, as well as editing The Day School Hymnbook. 

2 minutes 45 seconds (£1.95)

Score

Recording

Weihnachtslied (2019)

for SATB

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This is an arrangement for a cappella SATB of a carol by Louise Reichardt.

Born into a musical family, Caroline Louise Reichardt (1779-1826) was a composer, music teacher and choir director in Hamburg, Germany. She ran a women’s chorus for which she composed and arranged music, and founded the Hamburg Choral Society, championing the performances of works by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. Her songs and choruses appear in anthologies of German song, as well as being published separately. Several of her hymn-tunes appeared in no less than twenty-one different, late nineteenth century hymnals. Weihnachtslied is from a much longer poem by Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg.

2 minutes 20 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Ave Maria (2019)

for SA & piano (or organ)

This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Clara Schumann.

Clara Schumann (1819-96) received a thorough, and intense music education from her controlling Father, the piano teacher Friedrich Wieck. This prepared her for the rigours of life as a touring musician and, from her early teens, Clara excelled both as a composer and as a renowned concert pianist. She composed about a hundred pieces, half of which were written by the age of 20, before her marriage to another of her father’s students, the composer Robert Schumann. Clara contributed to joint Lieder collections with Robert, as well as producing two collections herself. After his untimely death she dedicated the rest of her life (some 40 years) to editing and promoting his music and composed virtually no more of her own. 

2 minutes 15 seconds (£1.75)

Score

Recording

St Paul's Benediction (2019)

for SS & piano (or organ)

This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Amy Beach.

Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a child prodigy who was accustomed to giving public recitals on the piano from an early age. After initially receiving piano lessons from her mother she continued to study in her native America, benefitting from some composition lessons as a teenager. The education, and recitals, came to an abrupt end when she married, at 18, and was thus expected to behave like a society wife. Her professional musical activities were severely limited during her marriage. Her husband’s death, in 1910 (he was 24 years her senior), gave her the freedom to teach, perform, compose, and publish her work. 

 

With prayer and supplication, 

let your requests be known unto God.

And the peace of God 

which passeth all understanding 

shall keep your hearts and minds 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

1 minute (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Lux Aeterna (2018)

for SSSSAA & harp (or piano)

Lux Aeterna (2018) for SSAA Girls' Choir, SA Women's Chorus & harp (commissioned by Multitude of Voyces)

Lux aeterna was commissioned by Louise Stewart for the 2018 Salisbury International Women’s Day service. The première was given by Godolphin Vocal Ensemble and a community choir featuring the women of Salisbury’s churches. Conceived to be a companion piece to Carol J. Jones’s All Shall Be Well, Lux aeterna reflects on the near-death visions of Julian of Norwich by juxtaposing the ethereal qualities of some contemporary sacred music with the music we know would have been familiar to Julian and her contemporaries. Using the original plainchant Lux Aeterna melody (from the Requiem Mass) as an intonation, reminiscent of the opening of All Shall Be Well, along with the notes of the Lydian mode (the mode in which the Lux Aeterna is set), I have attempted to reimagine the sounds associated with Julian’s fourteenth century voice in the twenty-first century. 

4 minutes 45 seconds (£1.50)

Score

Recording

Amy Beach Canticles (2020)

for SATB

Amy Beach Canticles pairs the Nunc Dimittis, one of Amy Beach’s earliest published works of 1891, with a newly-composed Magnificat by Olivia Sparkhall. The adaptation of phrases from Beach’s Nunc Dimittis, combined with portions of Tone VIII, provides a partner which is sympathetic to Beach’s style. The straight-forward SATB a cappella setting makes it ideal for a weekday Evensong, or for a choir of modest forces. A keyboard reduction is provided for rehearsal purposes, or to provide light support in the service if needed. 

Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a child prodigy who was accustomed to giving public recitals on the piano from an early age. After initially receiving piano lessons from her mother she continued to study in her native America, benefitting from some composition lessons as a teenager. The education, and recitals, came to an abrupt end when she married, at 18, and was thus expected to behave like a society wife. Her professional musical activities were severely limited during her marriage. Her husband’s death, in 1910 (he was 24 years her senior), gave her the freedom to teach, perform, compose, and publish her work. 

5 minutes (£3)

Score

Recording

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I saw three ships (2021)

for Young Voices and piano

For Advent & Christmas Services & Concerts. 

A jolly arrangement for two-part children's voices. Parts are equal in range, and interest; taking turns to have the tune. This arrangement is highly suitable for children's choirs. 

1. I saw three ships come sailing in,
  On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
I saw three ships come sailing in,
  On Christmas day in the morning.

2. And what was in those ships all three?

3. Our Saviour Christ and his lady

4. Pray whither sailed those ships all three?

5. Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem,

6. And all the bells on earth shall ring,

7. And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,

8. And all the souls on earth shall sing,

9. Then let us all rejoice, amain,

 

2 minutes

Score

Recording

Email: sales@lindsaymusic.co.uk for digital pdf copy

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Crucifixus (2019)

for SATB soli & SATB chorus

Music for Holy Week. 

As part of the liturgy of Palm Sunday, in the Church of England, the congregation join in with the reading of the Passion, taking the part of ‘the crowd.’ It was the congregation’s shouts of ‘crucify him’ from this year’s service that acted as a catalyst for this setting of Crucifixus. 

Review:

"This striking setting stands in a long line of such settings over the centuries, but holds its own and has a special approach to the words. There is a repeated ‘Crucifixus’, with distinctive rhythmic and harmonic pattern – the composer refers to the congregational shouts of ‘crucify him’ in liturgical readings of the Passion as a catalyst. At first the choir has the ‘Crucifixus’ pattern while solo voices continue with the text; then roles are reversed as choir tenors and basses describe suffering and burial. The music moves through tonalities and textures until a final long crescendo and powerful conclusion on the repeated, single-word ‘Crucifixus’."

James L. Montgomery, Church Music Quarterly, March 2022

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis;       He was crucified also for us;

sub Pontio Pilato passus,         under Pontius Pilate he suffered,

et sepultus est.                         and was buried.

3 minutes (£2.95)

Score

Recording

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Day of Days (2019)

for SATB & piano/organ

Music for Easter Services. 

This is an arrangement of a hymn by Faustina Hasse Hodges, with words by Miss M. Williams. 

1. Day of days we gladly greet thee, 

Queen of all the festal year, 

With unburden'd hearts me meet thee, 

In the Easter sunshine clear. 

Storms are over, clouds are fled, 

Christ is risen from the dead. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! 

 

2. Winter's cold and snow are ended, 

At the coming of the spring; 

Who, by breeze and bird attended 

Calls for earth's awakening. 

Rise ye flowers from winter's bed, 

Christ is risen from the dead. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! 

 

3. Banished be our Lenten sorrow, 

Sooth'd our bitter Lenten pain; 

Night hath found its glad tomorrow, 

Joy hath smiled on us again: 

All our Lenten tears are shed, 

Christ is risen from the dead. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! 

 

4. Sing, ye free unfettered waters, 

Carol, all ye choiring birds; 

For the church her sons and daughters 

Bids repeat the joyful words 

Once by an Apostle said, 

Christ is risen from the dead. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

3 minutes (£1.36)

Score

Recording

As we journey on (2021)

for SATB and organ

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

Let us prepare for the coming of Christ, as we journey on to the kingdom of heaven. We give thanks that we have been called out of darkness into your everlasting light.

Let us reflect on the birth of Christ, as we prepare for the kingdom of heaven. We give thanks that we have been called to be stewards of your eternal purpose.

Come, Lord Jesus, open our eyes that we may see your purpose for our lives; and guide us all in the ways of peace.

Come, Lord Jesus, open our eyes that we may see your purpose for our lives; and grow in full knowledge of your love, like the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

Words, based on prayers of intercession, by Gillian Rogers (1934-2019)

3 minutes 30 seconds (£2.50)

Score

Recording

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Resonet in Laudibus (2020)

for SATB & piano/organ

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

Words from the Piae Cantiones, 1582; tune by Alice Nevin, with organ part added by Olivia Sparkhall.

Alice Nevin (1837-1925), lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for most of her adult life. Hymn tune composer and organist at the First Reformed Church, she edited a hymnbook which was published by the Philadelphia firm of J.B. Lippincott, Hymns and Carols for Church and Sunday School (1879).

Part of the Sacred Music by Historical Women Composers Series.

1 minute 20 seconds (£1.36)

Score

Recording

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A Renewal of Faith (2021)

for SATB & organ

We pray for a renewal of our faith and that, in all the tensions and confusion of this present time, we may continue to trust in your name, and find your love in strength and peace.

We pray that your Church may grow in faith, so that sharing Christ’s suffering and death, we may share in the glory of his resurrection. 

Words: Gillian Rogers

 

 

Review:

Olivia Sparkhall offers us the anthem A Renewal of Faith (mixed voices & organ; Encore, £2.50). The text opens with ‘We pray’, and this is used as a kind of mantra throughout the piece. The melodic material, whose accompaniment is often little more than simple chords, appears in short cells. There is a satisfying final climax, and the effect of the whole is one of uncomplicated charm.

Jeremy Jackman in Choir & Organ magazine, July/August 2021

2 minutes 30 seconds (£2.50)

Score

Recording

Jubilate (2021)

for SSSA

Words: Book of Common Prayer (1662)

O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands : serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.

Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves : we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise : be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.

For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting : and his truth endureth from generation to generation.

3 minutes

Score

Recording

The Baptism of Jesus (2019)

for SATB

The Baptism of Jesus – SATB a cappella (with option for organ/piano doubling, if needed)

 

Eternal Father, who at the baptism of Jesus revealed him to be your Son, anointing him with the Holy Spirit: grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit, that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Words: Common Worship

 

Suitable for use at services which include a baptism or christening, this setting of the collect for the feast of the baptism of our Lord commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The feast day itself is celebrated on the first Sunday after Epiphany. 

 

The sound-world of The Baptism of Jesus embraces the sharpened fourth which creates a timeless quality typical of modal writing. The composition is intentionally restrained in its scoring, with no divisi, and no extremes of register, making it easily performed on little rehearsal. 

3 minutes (£2)

Score

Recording

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God of all creation (2021)

for SAMen & piano/organ

(A Harvest Anthem)

Music for Harvest or Thanksgiving.

God of all creation,
we praise and thank you

for all that you have done

to bring safe the fruits of the ground; our harvest:

grant that we may use them well,

grant that we may use them in your name. 

 

For these, and all your gifts,

we praise and magnify your name,

and ask that we may bring forth

the fruits of the Holy Spirit

and, at the last, be gathered into your eternal store.

 

Words: Olivia Sparkhall, adapted from BCP prayers for harvest.

Composed for Creationtide; the season of harvest (UK) or thanksgiving (USA), God of all creation is characterised by its flowing accompaniment and lyrical melody. There’s some unison singing, some passages where the melodic phrases are shared between the voice-parts, and use of sequential repetition to extend the phrase.

2 minutes 45 seconds (£1.80)

Score

Recording

This Holy Night (2019)

for SSA & piano

Music for Advent & Christmas Carol Services & Concerts.

This Holy Night for SSA and piano is an arrangement of the traditional Irish tune, Londonderry Air. 

 

This holy night, whilst all around are sleeping,

In stable, bare, a maiden lies awake,

The Father, too, a watchful eye is keeping

Upon His Son, whose life will death forsake. 

 

A star appears, it’s twinkling in the heavens,

Its message, ‘come, and see the holy birth.’

The shepherds hurry through the streets of Bethlehem,

To see the child who’ll bring us peace on earth. 

 

The wise men, too, are drawing ever closer,

They bring their gifts of incense, myrrh and gold,

When they arrive they kneel before the Christ-child,

The little baby is a myst’ry to behold. 

 

Words: Olivia Sparkhall

2 minutes 20 seconds (£2)

Score

Recording

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The Dormouse's Carol (2021)

for upper voices & piano

This delightful carol by Elizabeth Poston, where a dormouse is awoken from its hibernation with the news of Jesus’s birth, has been reimagined for 2-part upper voices. A solo voice, taking the role of ‘lizard’, adds to the overall charm, and brings the piece to life. 

 

In a thorny bramble patch,

Where no dog can come to scratch

For rabbit, mole or mouse,

I wrapped myself in moss and hay

To dream the winter months away.

 

There, in the middle of my sleep,

I felt a scaly lizard creep

Excited round my house;

‘Wake up,’ he flicked me with his tail,

‘Summer, summer in the vale!’

‘In a stable by the Inn

Summer, summer doth begin’,

In haste I left my nest,

I raced the lizard down the hill

And to the stable windowsill.

There, in the manger on the wall,

Slept the Summer of us all,

And in a Maid's caress.

O Summer in a Winter Sun!

O Son, made flesh for everyone

To worship and confess.

2 minutes (£1.36)

Score

Recording

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Three Shakespeare Partsongs (2022)

for three voices

Three Shakespeare Partsongs, for three voices (at any pitch), is a setting of portions of text from Twelfth Night and As You Like It. There are percussion parts for side drum/tabor in ‘Play on’ and guiro in ‘For the rain’. The vocal range is narrow, and the idiom embraces both gentle dissonance and the parallel 4ths and 5ths reminiscent of early music.  

 

The set opens with ‘Play on’. The constant repetition is designed to convince that music really is the food of love. No. 2 takes the refrain, ‘For the rain it raineth every day’ and superimposes Feste’s song, shared equally amongst the three voices. The third song uses an unexpected cadence to cast doubt as to whether sweet lovers really do love the spring. The final chord of ‘Play on’ is subverted, albeit by only one note, at the end of each verse, and the sinister whispering belies the jolly heys and hos. But all’s well that ends well!

1. Play on

2. For the rain

3. It was a lover and his lass

5 minutes

Score (under sample score click 'open')

Recording

All and some (2022)

for SATB

Newly published in readiness for Christmas 2022, All and some is a lively carol for SATB. Full of rhythmic vitality, and with a nod to the fifteenth century, this setting is ideal for choirs looking for a new piece to add to their repertoire.  

I was drawn to the text of All and some through studying the inspirational work of scholar Edith Rickert, whose collection, Ancient English Christmas Carols MCCCC to MDCC, brought medieval and renaissance carols to the attention of others in the first decade of the 20th century. The source, a manuscript kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, has challenged researchers, and several different attempts have been made to reproduce the text accurately. 

Nowell sing we, both all and some,

now Rex pacificus is ycome.

 

Exortum est in love and lysse.

Now Christ His gree He gan us gysse,

and with his body us bought to bliss.

 

De fructu ventris of Mary bright,

both God and man in her alight,

out of disease He did us dight:

 

Puer natus to us was sent,

to bliss us bought, fro bale us blent,

and else to woe we had ywent:

 

Gloria tibi, ay, and bliss,

God unto his grace he us wysse,

the rent of heaven that we not miss:

2 minutes 30 seconds (£1.95)

Score

Recording

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Hear, O ye kings (2022)

for SATB

 

Three Choirs Festival Competition winner

The winning piece of the Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir Composition Competition. First performed at Choral Evensong in Hereford Cathedral, at the Three Choirs Festival, on Sunday 24 July 2022.

Judges 5:3 KJV 

 

This is the song of Deborah and Barak.

Barak’s voice is represented by the opening solo tenor, with Deborah (solo soprano) bringing the piece to an end. 

Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.

2 minutes (£1.95)

Score

Recording

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