The Dragon

A little mediaeval view of the gastronomic predelictions of dragons. There are two versions, one a little tricky rhythmically, the other with the difficulties mostly ironed out.

Free download of entire piece: Both versions: Finale
                                          Rhythmically unchallenging: PDF, MIDI
                                          Rhythmically challenging: PDF, MIDI

Gloria (Missa Gallinum Huma)

This setting is energetic with a more reflective middle section. There is a certain debt to the Missa Luba and the singers ought to feel quite exhausted by the end.

Free download of the entire piece: PDF, Finale, MIDI

Missa Gallinum Huma (The Henbury Mass)

This setting includes the Gloria above, and consists of Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus and Agnus Dei. A Credo may follow in due course. It can be used in a liturgical or concert setting. It can also be sung by four individual voices, with a little modification of the Gloria, omitting octave doublings.

Free download of the entire piece: PDF, MIDI: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei

The Joy of the Singer

The Netsilik Innuit Piuvkaq has a wistful and gently melancholic line in verse. He wants to succeed in hunting, fishing and making songs, but he's not very good at any of them. So here is a wistful and gently melancholy celebration of the not-very-successful, which is probably most of us. It makes a change from heroes and the self-important.

Free download of entire piece: Finale, PDF, MIDI

The Gurt Black Dog of Somerset

The absolutely true tale of a cottager who walks up the Quantock hills (in Somerset, England) only for the mist to come down. A muzzle presses into his hand - "Aha!" he cries, "'Tis my faithful sheepdog Shep come to guide me home." But when he reaches home and opens his cottage door, there is Shep inside. Who then guided him home?

Originally for choir and piano, with interesting effects to convey such things as a phantom dog growing in size and disappearing. The unaccompanied version was made for four solo voices, with the interesting effects realised somewhat differently.

Free download of the entire piece:
         Accompanied version: Finale, PDF, MIDI
         Unaccompanied version: Finale, PDF, MIDI

Magnificat — with organ

The Magnificat opens with the organ holding a very high G rather annoyingly. The choir sing Magnificat anima mea Dominum repetitively against this until a pedal G lends reassurance and the high G ends, leaving an atmosphere of comfort and relief. The mezzo solo sings the English words passionately, alternating with and fusing in and out of the choir. And so on...

Recorded on the CD “Wassail Rhapsody”, DRD0198, from [email protected]

Download a sample: MIDI      Free download of entire piece: Finale, PDF (full score)

Magnificat

This is a version of the Magnificat above rewritten without organ for Jan Speelpenning and his Zommersingers, who wanted to perform it unaccompanied. I added a Nunc dimittis, to their surprise! They gave the première at Courtesoult, France on August 9, 2007, conducted by Maud Meilof, who also sang the solo.

Free download of Magnificat: Finale, MIDI, PDF
Free download of Nunc dimittis: Finale, MIDI, PDF

Oh England!

An intense and emotive setting of words from the Chorus at the beginning of Act II of Henry V. Slow with silences.

Free download of the entire piece: PDF, Finale, MIDI

A Rune Before Prayer

A rune collected from the oral tradition of the Scottish Western Isles by Alexander Carmichael in 1899 and translated by him from the Gaelic. It was used to prepare for prayer. This setting might be used as a meditational anthem, or to set the mood for another more substantial meditational piece.

Free download of entire piece: Finale, PDF, MIDI

Spiritual for Freedom

The Spiritual was written for a concert commemorating Amnesty International’s 40th anniversary. It uses the simplicity and heavy work rhythms of spirituals to deliver a powerful plea for freedom. All the spiritual melodies are new, the words based on fragments of existing spirituals. At the heart of the piece, a reader reads a passage from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, 1845, (though something else could be substituted) while the choir and soloists keen. The atmosphere at the end is one of ecstatic and optimistic exhaustion after a long ride of powerful emotion.

Free download of the entire piece:
     Full score: PDF, MIDI
     Chorus part: PDF
     Organ score: PDF
     All three: Finale

Three Fiona MacLeod Settings

Fiona MacLeod was a creation or perhaps alter ego of the Scottish poet William Sharp (1885–1905). Some consider her his inner feminine consciousness; he himself described her as “an ancestral seeress” who came through to him. In any case, he went to tremendous lengths to conceal the connection between her and himself and there was quite a scandal when the truth came out that he was author of both his and her works. But the strange thing is that Fiona’s writings, steeped as they are in a twilight Celtic world, are so much more atmospheric and vivid, and in truth, better, than William’s. It is as though he really was possessed by a more inspired soul.

Three three settings are:

The settings are intended to be performed as a set, but Honeymouth and The Moonchild can be performed separately. The Wind wouldn’t really stand alone.

The complete set was first performed in 1973, I think it was, by the Westron Wynd in the Orangery, Goldney House, Bristol, conducted by Nigel Davidson.

The Moonchild has been performed in various guises, such as a solo song with piano and a recorder consort plus psaltery. Please feel free to arrange it for whatever assortments you like, but try to retain the atmospheric quality.

Download a sample: MIDI       Free download of the music: PDF, Finale