CHORAL | VOCAL | ORCHESTRAL | LARGE ENSEMBLE | SMALL ENSEMBLE | SOLO | ELECTRONICS | OPEN
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CHORAL
Æfensceop
A setting of Riddle 8 from The Exeter Book, using the original Anglo-Saxon. It evokes a sense of mystery and magic, as the choir and saxophone work together to resurrect the spirit of the riddle’s subject.
Written in five through-running movements, this work can be performed as a single continuous piece, or split up into separate chunks and spread out across a programme.
Transliteration / pronunciation guide provided.
Commissioned by the Covent Garden Chorus, directed by Tori Longdon.
Forces: SATB divisi, saxophone accompaniment
Duration: c. 9 minutes
Already Gone
A setting of excerpts from Alice Oswald’s poem Dunt: a poem for a dried up river that combines ideas of lush, flowing fresh water with the image of the water nymph unable to conjure it, despite her desperate efforts.
Joint-winner of Echo Vocal Ensemble’s Composition Competition 2019.
Forces: SATB divisi with solos, a cappella
Duration: c. 5 minutes
blue and white and wind and snow
A short piece about, and inspired by, Antarctica. It focuses on ‘shh’ and bird call sounds with a small section of lyric-less musical material to represent some of the continent’s defining characteristics: the blustering wind, the chatter of birds, the crash of waves, and its crisp, raw, natural beauty.
Commissioned by the National Youth Girls’ Choir of Great Britain.
Forces: upper voices divisi, violin accompaniment
Duration: c. 2 minutes 30 seconds
Christmas Silence
A lullaby-esque carol setting a beautiful, tender poem by Margaret Deland, chosen for its focus on the intimate and familiar bond between mother and baby. Relatively easy to learn.
Commissioned by Choir & Organ magazine for their November 2021 issue, in partnership with NYCGB. Copies available via the Choir & Organ website until April 2022, thereafter directly via this website.
Forces: SATB divisi, a cappella
Duration: c. 3 minutes 30 seconds
Comfort
Using a selection of the same texts that Brahms included in his Ein Deutsches Requiem, this piece is an embrace of warmth, love, and understanding – that acknowledges the sadness of loss but also celebrates the joy in a life well-lived, and brings voices together to express support and comfort.
Commissioned by the Fuller family for the Chapter House Choir, York, to be performed before Brahms’ ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem’.
Forces: SATB divisi, a cappella
Duration: c. 6 minutes 45 seconds
The Dusk of Thee
A setting of Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam, Section 2, a poignant and moving exploration of loss and our mortality compared to the longevity of yew trees and the resurrection of life that nature brings each spring. Written to be performed with minimal rehearsal time.
Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, through their Composers programme 2019/20, for Cheltenham Music Festival.
Forces: SATB divisi, a cappella
Duration: c. 6 minutes
Journeys Meet
A song cycle (3 songs) inspired by Berwick Church in East Sussex. Together, they take singers and audiences on a visit to the church: arriving and taking in its natural setting, heading inside and appreciating the peace and reflection to be found there, then leaving feeling rejuvenated and connected to others.
Libretto by Laura Attridge.
Commissioned by St Michael & All Angels Church, Berwick; Brighton Dome; Create Music; and Glyndebourne. Created in collaboration with students at local primary schools.
Alternative performance materials available, including a voices-only score that is shorter & lighter for young performers to hold!
Forces: mixed ability children’s voices, max. div. 3; piano accompaniment
Duration: total c. 8 minutes 30 seconds (each song 2’30’’-3’15’’)
Margaret
A gentle, slightly hymn-like setting of the memorial plaque for a woman called Margaret who died in Lewisham in 1643, a “nurse, midwife, surgeon, and in part physician to all, both rich and poor”. This piece is in honour of both Margaret and other impressive women in history, who may not have received their own plaques.
Written during the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s 2018-19 Young Composer’s Scheme. Recorded by the 2018-19 Fellowship Octet, released on NMC Recordings 2020. Published by Stainer & Bell.
Forces: SATB divisi with solos, a cappella
Duration: 5 minutes
Maternity
A gentle setting of Alice Meynell’s eponymous poem: an utterly tragic, succinct, poignant expression of the loss of a newborn child, even years later. This poem made me cry, and I knew immediately I had to set it for upper voices: a moment of female solidarity and consolation.
Forces: SSAA (upper voices), a cappella
Duration: c. 2 minutes 30 seconds
Not Been Found
About the doomed Franklin Expedition of 1845. A setting of the Victory Point note: the only significant written record ever found, which was written in two parts – the first in 1847, the second in 1848 around the edges of the page. Juxtaposing the optimism and ambition evident in the first part with the devastating change in circumstances in the second.
Written during the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s 2018-19 Young Composer’s Scheme, recorded by the National Youth Choir, released on NMC Recordings 2020.
Forces: SATB divisi, a cappella
Duration: c. 9 minutes
Now welcome, somer
An optimistic and uplifting setting of the closing song in Chaucer’s The Parlement of Foules, welcoming the arrival of summer at the end of long, dark, winter nights. Uses the original Middle-English pronunciation.
Forces: SATB divisi, alto saxophone accompaniment
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Parliament Round
A 5-line round inspired by, and in celebration of, the familiar calls of the Speaker of the House of Commons, as 'performed' by John Bercow.
Forces: SATB, a cappella
Duration: variable!
QINAH
A setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, focusing on the emotional consequences of the text and aiming to represent loosely some of the stages of grief.
Shortlisted for the National Centre of Early Music’s Young Composer Award 2014.
Forces: SATB divisi, a cappella
Duration: c. 5 mins 30 seconds
Vernichtung-Frage-Schrei
Song-cycle of three pieces setting WWI poems by August Stramm (1874-1915), seeking to capture the vulnerability of a man who was not a natural soldier, and who despaired of war; who was horrified by what he saw, and was moved to capture his thoughts in poetry.
Winner of the Tenso Young Composers Award 2017. ‘Frage’ shortlisted in the London Oriana Choir five15 competition 2019.
Forces: SATB divisi with short Soprano/Tenor solos, a cappella
Duration: total c. 11 minutes
We Are Married
Taking extracts of real love letters, from Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, for its (non-religious) text, this is a very warm, tender piece written for weddings.
Forces: SATB (max. division SSAATB), a cappella
Duration: c. 3 minutes 30 seconds
Weaving Warwick’s Stories
A song cycle (4 songs) comprising an Anthem and three further songs, all about the past, present, and future of the historic town of Warwick. Musically, the songs range from gentle and reflective to energetic in a 5/8 time signature.
Libretto by Laura Attridge.
Commissioned by Warwick – A Singing Town, supported by Warwick Town Council and the Warwick Schools Foundation, with special thanks to Richard Nicholson. Created with input from students at nine local primary schools.
Alternative performance materials available, including a voices-only score that is shorter & lighter for young performers to hold!
Forces: children’s voices, max. div. 2; piano accompaniment
Duration: total c. 12 minutes 30 seconds (each song 2’00’’-4’15’’)
Where Words Fail
A mostly wordless piece that uses the phrase “Where words fail, music speaks” in multiple languages to evoke and celebrate the things only music can say.
Commissioned by the Mount Kelly Choral Academy during Lillie’s tenure as their Associate Composer.
Forces: SATB (max. division SSAATB), a cappella
Duration: c. 3 minutes 20 seconds
Vocal
In the Company of Nightingales
A piece celebrating the life, ideas, and experiences of the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who was killed in action in 1915 aged just 25. The text is a mixture of Henri’s own writings and poem responses by James Crowden. Glissandi feature heavily, as they mimic the smooth curves on many of his sculptures and the motion of carving, as do birdsong-like gestures, due to him referencing them many times in his letters.
Commissioned by the Gaudier Ensemble to mark their 25th anniversary and the centenary of the death of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Premiered by the Gaudier Ensemble with William Dazeley at the Cerne Abbas Music Festival, July 2015.
Forces: solo baritone, mixed ensemble (flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon - horn - violins (2)/viola/cello/contrabass)
Duration: c. 15 minutes
Kind Regards
A darkly satirical art song in which a woman tries to find the right words to express her discomfort about a ‘minor incident’ with a male colleague in the staff kitchen.
Libretto by Laura Attridge.
Commissioned by the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists programme, with thanks to their Engender Network.
Forces: solo soprano, piano accompaniment
Duration: c. 5 minutes
A Modern Woman in Work, Love, and Life
Song cycle (3 songs) of light-hearted, easy-listening comedy songs, setting poems by Jessie Pope. Not her war poems, instead earlier poems from the beginning of the 20th century and very much carrying the spirit of the suffragette/feminist movement.
This selection of poems follows a young woman outraging her relatives with her independent lifestyle, frustrated with poor treatment at work, and finally contemplating settling down, but for one small “weak point” in her beau …
Commissioned by the International Guitar Foundation & Festivals for their 2023-24 season.
Forces: solo soprano, guitar accompaniment
Duration: total c. 8 minutes (each song 2-3 minutes)
Echo
Song for duet*. A haunting setting of Christina Rossetti’s eponymous poem, full of yearning for lost love and the bittersweet power of memory.
Forces: soprano and alto voices, piano accompaniment (*adaptable for solo voice, piano accompaniment)
Duration: c. 2 minutes 30 seconds
Nyx
Song. A delicate setting of Catherine Pozzi’s eponymous poem. Written shortly before Pozzi died of tuberculosis, it conveys her acceptance of death and merging with infinite blackness, whilst still capturing her frustration at going too soon, before resolving all of life’s remaining questions.
Forces: solo soprano, piano accompaniment
Duration: c. 2 minutes 30 seconds
ORCHESTRAL
Note: All orchestral pieces can be re-arranged to suit different forces if required. Please do get in touch if you’d like to perform a piece but would need adjustments!
Geography
A short, fun piece centred around the idea of moving sound around the orchestra in a way that would be perceptible in the audience. ‘Musical friendships/partnerships’ between different instruments emerge and develop into their own voices.
Forces: 2.1+cor ang.2.2. saxes:sop.alto.ten.bari. 4.2.3.1 timp 2perc harp str (no div)
Duration: c. 3 minutes 30 seconds
Recall
Explores the emotional experience of remembering (particularly when the journey to the answer is difficult and frustrating), and reflects the bizarre electrical networks in our brains that bring us to the correct solution in the end. Uses the ‘Pange lingua’ plainsong melody as a starting block and as inspiration for the final ‘complete’ phrase at the end of the piece.
Written on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composer’s scheme 2017-18 with Sir James MacMillan.
Forces: 2(IId.Picc).2.2(IId.Bass).2 2.2.2.1 2perc harp cel str (no div)
Duration: c. 8 minutes
remiscipate
Inspired by the demolition of Glasgow’s Red Road Flats, it invokes both a literal dust cloud shifting and moving, and the ephemeral clouds of memories. Those huge tower blocks (once the tallest in Europe) were impressive and shocking to watch fall so quickly, but were also people’s homes; each resident and neighbour will have had different experiences and memories, like individual specs in a dust cloud.
Written on the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Composer’s Hub 2015-16. Premiered by the RSNO in their Season Finale concerts, Summer 2016.
Forces: 2.2.2.2 4.2.3.1 timp 2perc str (Vln1/Vln2/Vlc div a3, Vla/Db div a2)
Duration: c. 10 minutes 30 seconds
Large Ensemble (more than 6 players)
Note: Adjustments can be made to instrumentation if required. Likewise, scores can be provided in landscape or portrait format, regardless of the perusal score format.
The Clock of the Long Now
Inspired by a project of the same name that is building a 200-foot high clock, designed to keep time for 10,000 years in a virtually pitch-black cave in the Nevada desert. The ‘Clock of the Long Now’ project considers whether we are being good ancestors and optimistically hopes to leave something to watch over civilisation far into the future. This piece captures both this optimism and insecurity about the future, as well as the loneliness of a clock keeping time alone in a dark cave.
Forces: flute/clarinet/tenor sax - horn - glock - violin/viola/cello/contrabass
Duration: c. 8 minutes
Consumption
A piece about the environment: the conflict between the natural, wild world and unsustainable capitalist industry. In the piece, the free, delicate, and varied sounds of nature are squeezed into smaller and smaller pitch ranges, and eventually into silence, by the rhythmic drive of human activity.
Written on the London Symphony Orchestra’s Soundhub scheme, Phase II 2018-19 .
Forces: bassoon (d. contra) - tuba - violins (2)/violas (2)/cello/contrabass
Duration: c. 10 minutes
In the Company of Nightingales
A piece celebrating the life, ideas, and experiences of the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who was killed in action in 1915 aged just 25. The text is a mixture of Henri’s own writings and poem responses by James Crowden. Glissandi feature heavily, as they mimic the smooth curves on many of his sculptures and the motion of carving, as do birdsong-like gestures, due to him referencing them many times in his letters.
Commissioned by the Cerne Abbas Music Festival, to mark their 25th anniversary and the centenary of the death of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Premiered by the Gaudier Ensemble with William Dazeley, July 2015.
Forces: solo baritone, mixed ensemble (flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon - horn - violins (2)/viola/cello/contrabass)
Duration: c. 15 minutes
Red
A piece about the inner rage that can come from interacting with people when that interaction goes wrong. Long, almost annoying pitches replicate the ringing tension of a building fury, and violent gestures build until at last that anger is released. In response to the sarcastic, bitter elements in ‘Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind’ from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
Written on the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Composer’s Hub 2015-16.
Forces: flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon - horn/trumpet/trombone/tuba - 1perc - violins (3)/violas (2)/cello/contrabass
Duration: c. 6 minutes 30 seconds
Reflex
A fun, short piece that is rhythmically driven, with syncopation and frequent switches between irregular and regular time signatures.
Forces: alto sax - horn/trumpet/trombone - 1perc - violins(2)/viola/cello/contrabass
Duration: c. 3 minutes 30 seconds
Small Ensemble (up to 6 players)
Note: Adjustments can be made to instrumentation if required. Likewise, scores can be provided in landscape or portrait format, regardless of the perusal score format.
Elmer’s Walk
A selection of new pieces and arrangements to support the telling of the Elmer’s Walk story about Elmer the Elephant. To support this, the pieces vary from beautiful, to poignant, to full of busy energy and fun.
Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for their Under 5s Elmer’s Walk concert through their LSO Discovery Early Years programme.
Forces: violin - clarinet - bassoon - tuba - percussion (marimba/glockenspiel/shaker/djembe or bass drum/cymbal/bongos)
Duration: total c. 11 minutes
Elsewhen
Inspired by the strangeness, wonder, and melancholy of ancient sites such as Skara Brae and the Stones of Stenness: places and things so clearly made deliberately, but whose full meanings have been lost to time.
Written for the St Magnus Composers Course 2017.
Forces: flute - clarinet (d. bass) - violins (2) - viola (1) - cello
Duration: c. 9 minutes
Fat Lady, Waiting
A response to the poem The Maltese Venus by Abigail Zammit, about the Maltese fertility goddess and what she might have to say. Zammit’s poem imbues the figure with real confidence and self-assurance. This piece hints at sensuousness and solidity.
Written for the St Magnus Composers Course 2017.
Forces: string quartet (violin - violin - viola - cello)
Duration: c. 2 minutes 45 seconds
My Last Duchess
An interactive setting of Robert Browning’s eponymous dramatic monologue, exploring the silent figure of the Duchess that we glimpse between the lines spoken by the disturbing Duke. His voice is heard and is exaggerated in the tape, whereas her spirit comes through in the live players’ parts. Audience members can trigger small excerpts of the poem in addition to the tape.
Written on the London Symphony Orchestra’s Soundhub scheme, Phase I 2017-18 .
Forces: clarinet (d. bass) - viola - percussion (vibraphone/marimba/crotales/tubular bells/sus. cymbal/tam-tam/bass drum) - tape - live-triggered audio excerpts
Duration: 18 minutes 30 seconds
Pleura
A piece that incorporates sections of improvisation. Loosely around the rhythm of breathing and other physical rhythms and cycles humans experience, with the title coming from the name of layers of lung tissue that slide over each other, allowing the lungs to expand and contract.
Commissioned by cross-cultural ensemble ShivaNova.
Forces: bansuri - violin - mridiangam
Duration: c. 5 minutes 40 seconds
wavelet
A piece for mixed ensemble with lots of little, rhythmic gestures. One key starting idea was the irregular but mathematical patterns that govern how waves on the shoreline cross over each other and how ripples spread across water.
Forces: flute - clarinet - violin - viola - cello
Duration: c. 8 minutes
Solo
AND
Inspired by Jen Hadfield’s poem Blashey-wadder, about a huge storm in Shetland. Many lines begin with the word ‘and’ which creates a sense of endless, relentless winds and rains.
Commissioned by Katherine Wren for Nordic Viola.
Forces: viola
Duration: c. 5 minutes 30 seconds to 6 minutes
Chrysalis
A piece that came out of experiments with granular synthesis, with its tiny but rapid sounds and movements reminiscent of insects, and that also can create sounds entirely different to the source material. This inspired thoughts of the amazing metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies, where the entire organism breaks down and reforms.
Written for and using recordings of Jan Gorjanc.
Forces: harp - tape - live electronics
Duration: 6 minutes
Dormientes Bestia
A work inspired by the various sounds possible on the paetzold (such as key clicks and strong breathing) and by ideas of strong, fierce females. Don’t wake the sleeping beast…
Written for and using recordings of Rosie Land as part of Royal College of Music’s Contemporary Music in Action module, 2014-15.
Forces: paetzold (great bass) - tape
Duration: 8 minutes
Heuriskein
A struggle between the percussionist and the electronic tape, which sound by sound mimics and steals new ideas from the live performer.
Written for and using recordings of Kizzy Brooks, 2016.
Forces: dagu (huapengu) - tape - live electronics
Duration: 10 minutes
Lola on the Beach
A response to the photograph Lola smoking by Alice Pavesi Fiori from the Taylor Wessing Photography competition 2012. Captures the quiet contentment in the image, which shows a woman relaxed on a beach in the afternoon, with lengthening shadows cast by her and her companions stretching across the sand.
Forces: cello
Duration: c. 4 minutes 30 seconds
A Point of Pride
A short, celebratory fanfare inspired by the successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the optimism and aspirations of freedom that it brings.
Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, through their Composers programme 2019/20, for Cheltenham Music Festival.
Forces: trumpet - optional organ/choral accompaniment
Duration: c. 1 minute 30 seconds
VALA
A piece that grew from a single, ground bass-inspired phrase that gains a hypnotic power and ends up reminiscent of rallying chants at protests and marches.
Commissioned by Emily Bannister.
Forces: paetzold (basset, great bass, or contrabass)
Duration: c. 5 minutes
Vitreous
A piece full of sharp, loud jolts in the piano’s lower registers that are left to resonate and glass-like chimes in the upper registers that crackle and chime.
Written on the Psappha Composing For scheme 2016-17.
Forces: piano
Duration: c. 5 minutes 30 seconds
Watching Clouds
A short and simple piece written for learners. It has a wistful, thoughtful quality and lots of room for rubato and interpretation.
Forces: piano
Duration: c. 1 minute
Electronics
Chrysalis
A piece that came out of experiments with granular synthesis, with its tiny but rapid sounds and movements reminiscent of insects, and that also can create sounds entirely different to the source material. This inspired thoughts of the amazing metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies, where the entire organism breaks down and reforms.
Written for and using recordings of Jan Gorjanc.
Forces: harp - tape - live electronics
Duration: 6 minutes
Dormientes Bestia
A work inspired by the various sounds possible on the paetzold (such as key clicks and strong breathing) and by ideas of strong, fierce females. Don’t wake the sleeping beast…
Written for and using recordings of Rosie Land as part of Royal College of Music’s Contemporary Music in Action module, 2014-15.
Forces: paetzold (great bass) - tape
Duration: 8 minutes
Heuriskein
A struggle between the live performer and the electronic tape, which sound by sound mimics and steals new ideas from the live performer.
Written for and using recordings of Kizzy Brooks, 2016.
Forces: dagu (huapengu) - tape - live electronics
Duration: 10 minutes
My Last Duchess
An interactive setting of Robert Browning’s eponymous dramatic monologue, exploring the silent figure of the Duchess that we glimpse between the lines spoken by the disturbing Duke. His voice is heard and is exaggerated in the tape, whereas her spirit comes through in the live players’ parts. Audience members can trigger small excerpts of the poem in addition to the tape.
Written on the London Symphony Orchestra’s Soundhub scheme, Phase I 2017-18 .
Forces: clarinet (d. bass) - viola - percussion (vibraphone/marimba/crotales/tubular bells/sus. cymbal/tam-tam/bass drum) - tape - live-triggered audio excerpts
Duration: 18 minutes 30 seconds
Season of Mists
A purely electronics / audio work that plays with snippets of Keats’ poem To Autumn, combined with minimal pitched material and a recording of silicon beads being swirled in a wine glass.
Forces: tape (electronics)
Duration: 5 minutes 30 seconds
Open instrumentation (ensemble not specified)
Messiah Reimagined
Mostly-graphic scores for improvised performance, inspired by / interpretations of two movements from Handel’s Messiah.
Written for Max Reinhardt’s Instant Orchestra for a performance with Oxford Contemporary Music, 2015.
Forces: mixed (voices - instruments)
Duration: variable!