Welcome to my May newsletter!
Wondrous Cross
As I write I’m enjoying the sunshine, but looking back on the performances that I went to in Holy Week – the time of year when my cantata Wondrous Cross often surfaces: there were several performances that I heard about, and I went to three of them!
One of them was at Ely Cathedral, with the Cathedral Choir directed by Sarah MacDonald, and you can see that one here. The music was interspersed with readings and prayers read by the Dean, and the result was a very meaningful Passiontide service in the calm and beautiful cathedral. I also attended a Good Friday service where the Deanery Choir, conductor Sally Pudney, led worship with a performance of it in the bright and ornate, mainly Victorian, St. Mary’s, Ardleigh. And the third performance was in the modern town-centre church of Lion Walk, Colchester, at the Passion Sunday morning service in the octagonal first-floor sanctuary overlooking the shops – for this one the director was Ian Ray, and I was singing in the choir! All the performances were colourful and moving and it was fascinating to hear three different approaches to the same piece so close together.
There are more details of Wondrous Cross here.
Cats – but not the feline variety
Sarah MacDonald, who conducted the Ely performance and who is in charge of the Girls’ Choir at the Cathedral, is also the conductor of the Chapel Choir at Selwyn College, Cambridge. And this choir have, for many years, been associated with the John Armitage Memorial Trust (JAM), giving premieres of pieces by a wide range of composers. This year I was lucky enough to be included, and my piece The Cats are Crowding us was selected from a pile of anonymous submissions and performed in March at their 25thanniversary concert at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet St. You can hear the sparking and exciting performancehere – the short piece is not actually about cats, but about a Scottish clan – you can read more about it here.
Church Organs
Last Friday I went to a service, followed by a workshop, at Chelmsford Cathedral. The service was a VE Day celebration – a moving event, with lots of medals and flags. And it was good to hear the Cathedral Choir in very good shape under their new director Emma Gibbins, singing anthems by Ireland and Bainton (the beautiful ‘And I saw a new heaven’), and some very sensitive organ playing from Samuel Bristow (Assistant Music Director). The workshop that followed featured compositions by members of Colchester New Music, and Emma led performances and discussion of pieces by Alexander Blustin, Theresa Chapman, Mark Bellis, Phillipa Joy, and Peter Thorne, which will be sung at the Pentecost Evensong on June 8th. Finally we were treated to a mini-exploration of the cathedral organ (actually two organs at different ends of the building) and an enjoyable try-out, by Emma and Samuel, of the organ prelude and postlude that I’ve written for that Pentecost service, both based on the plainsong Veni Creator Spiritus.
The next evening I went to another service – the dedication of the new organ at St. Mary’s Church Dedham. Newly renovated and installed by Nicholson’s of Malvern, the Binns organ was originally built for a Glasgow church in 1902 – and, now fully restored, it sounded glorious, and after the service we were treated to an effervescent recital by Jonathan Scott. It’s wonderful that the church’s organist, Antony Watson, and his team, were able to raise the funds for this wonderful instrument via several years of events and ‘organathons’.
Mindfulness
Music with the ‘mindfulness’ tag is a very popular option in these times – and I’ve recently been experimenting with writing some piano pieces that fit into that category. It’s an interesting challenge, and writing music for mindfulness that is not mindless is more difficult than one might think. But I was reassured yesterday when I saw on the BBC website that my short choral piece Peace in the World, sung by the BBC Singers, was played recently on Radio 3’s ‘Mindful Mix – Tranquil Harmonies for Restful Moments’.
So I think I can now consider myself a fully paid-up member of the Society of Mindfulness.
New and Old
As well as writing new pieces, I’ve been spending time looking out some of my older pieces and making them available again. One piece that I recently came across was a lively setting of Psalm 150 that I originally wrote for a male voice choir in Stoke-on-Trent (The Audley Male Voice Choir), and which I have now also arranged for SSAA choir and SATB choir – more about that here.
And I’m continuing to do quite a lot of arrangements, including a bunch of piano accompaniments for the 2026 ABRSM woodwind syllabus books, and two for a Recorder Mix book, which are currently in proof stage.
But I’ve also been doing some choral, and piano solo arrangements, and these are all published and on sale from Colne Edition.
The choral ones are aimed at small church choirs and are arrangements of popular hymns and worship songs, often flexibly scored, suitable as easy anthems within church services. Published in the series Prayer and Praise for Choirs, they have sold sets of copies in several countries, and they include The Servant King, Make me a Channel of your Peace, How Great Thou Art, A New Commandment, and It is Well with my Soul. You can see a complete list here.
And, picking up from that, I’ve recently started a new series, Piano Prayer and Praise. Having written a lot of organ preludes for church services recently, I thought it was time to give church pianists a go – so I’ve written four (so far) fantasias on popular hymns, suitable as interludes or during communion. I’ve put them on Soundcloud, where they seem to be getting plenty of plays! Details here.
Recent Colne Edition publications:
Psalm 150 – three editions, TTBB, SSAA, and SATB, all with organ
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus and Be thou my vision – arrangements in the Prayer and Praise for Choirs series
A New Commandment, Slane, Londonderry Air and Noël Nouvelet – fantasias for piano solo in the Piano Prayer and Praise series
Recent GIA publications:
Infant Holy – arrangement of the traditional Polish carol for mixed voice choir – details here
Little Jesus, sweetly sleep – arrangement of the Czech ‘Rocking Carol’ for mixed voice choir (in preparation)
Both of these are arrangements that I wrote for the once-a-year St. Mary’s Friston Christmas Choir (Suffolk)
Thank you for reading to the end.
The image is of the Nave Organ at Chelmsford Cathedral. This can also be played from a linked manual on the Chancel Organ – it’s complicated…