Secular vocal works
The year’s midnight (2023) - Cantata for choir and strings
Scores can be purchased from Faber through Birdsong Publishing
The Year’s Midnight is a 30 minute cantata written for the Yehudi Menuhin School choir and strings. Newly written poetry from Gillian Clarke (former National Poet of Wales) runs through the piece, with interludes titled ‘murmurations’, in which the strings imitate flowing flocks of birds. The first performance of this work will be conducted by the composer on 13th December 2023 at the Menuhin Hall as part of the Hall’s Winter Festival.
Homeward Bound (2019) - Mezzo-soprano and piano
This setting of a Liverpool folk song ‘Goodbye fare thee well’ was commissioned by Jennifer Johnston for her debut album, which features the work of composers from the North West, including Mark Simpson, Stephen Hough and Bethan Morgan-Williams. My piece is a short interpretation of the folk tune, with the refain being reharmonised with increasing drama as the piece proceeds.
About the album Johnston writes: I have sung across the globe and experienced many wonderful places, yet I love nowhere more than Liverpool: the gateway to the Atlantic, my native land, my beloved city, my home.
Im Not There (2018-20) - a song cycle for soprano and ensemble (20’)
This piece originally began as a small setting of Leo Mercer’s fabulous tweet poem that reads as follows:
im not there, but im thereing, to a somewhere, where, like this, i have this’d and that’d, eversince when and more and more, who knows/cares, im there
The brevity of this text had a big impression on me, so after hearing this piece performed at the Royal Academy of Music as part of the Songbook Project in 2018, I have been expanding it into a larger song cycle that sets texts by Gillian Clarke, Michelangelo, and Pablo Neruda, all reflecting on the idea of passing time and nostalgia.
Three Tao Te-Ching settings (2018) - for violin and narrator
This work was commissioned by Shir Levy for performance in London in October 2018 at the Cockpit Theatre. I was very grateful that the piece was performed by Shir and Peter Marinker.