Works in progress
Recent commissions include a new carol for Downe House School which they will premiere this Christmas. For this I have written An Earthly Blessing for upper voices and keyboard with my own words: "On a winter's night the world is changed forever, And in this moment the love of God has opened my heart; An earthly blessing from a heavenly king."
I hope rehearsals and preparations go well this term and that the new carol will be enjoyed by the singers. Thanks to Downe House for commissioning me.
Another choral commission currently is for the chamber choir Felicitas for their 20th anniversary in June 2012.
I am thrilled to have been invited to California in June next year to perform Mass in Blue with the fabulous Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale and their inspirational music director Elena Sharkova. I am honoured that they will be featuring my music in their 25th anniversary concert and I will also be writing a new work for them to perform in the same concert.
Carols for Choirs 5
Since joining the choir of St Oswald's Church in Durham in 1978 I have been in love with the Carols for Choirs books (Green, Orange, Blue and Red!) which we used extensively at Christmas and from which I got to know all sorts of music old, new and re-worked, including memorable works by Rutter, Matthias, Howells, Wilcox and many others. It would have been beyond my wildest dreams if someone had said to me that one day I would have a work featured in the Carols for Choirs series so it is with great joy that I opened a copy of Carols for Choirs 5, recently published by OUP which includes a new carol of mine - My Lord has Come - for unaccompanied SATB. Thanks to editor (the amazing) Bob Chilcott for including my piece which also features on the promo CD for the book. Carols for Choirs 5 also contains lovely works by Howard Skempton, John Rutter and Gabriel Jackson, among others.
New CD - Evensong in Blue
Ever since working with the Choir of St Martin in the Fields and their inspirational conductor Andrew Earis on the BBC broadcast of Mass in Blue in 2009, I've been hoping for further opportunities to collaborate with them. It was a joy therefore when Andrew approached me last summer (2010) about the possibility of an evensong broadcast from St Martin's with my ensemble and some new material for choir and jazz. I used previously written music, my Durham Jazz Evensong, as the core of the worship, and then arranged several hymns and wrote original settings, including of the John Donne text 'Bring Us O Lord God'. The evensong broadcast was a great success and as a result we decided to make a CD recording of the music in February. The resulting disc Evensong in Blue was a joy to perform and record with my wonderful band colleagues playing great solos, and the choir singing their hearts out. We also had a wonderful evening of music making as part of St Martin's Jazz in the Crypt series to launch the CD in April. Many thanks to St Martin's for putting the project together. There is so much to explore with improvised music and choral singing - let's do some more!
The CD is now available to buy in the SHOP section, or to download at www.amazon.co.uk/Evensong-in-Blue/dp/B004YCA4TM
Ode to a Nightingale Premiere
Hertfordshire Chorus' premiere performance of my setting of Keats' Ode to A Nightingale at the Barbican, London in May was a very special evening for me. The piece was a commission from the choir with generous support from sponsor Rod Jones. Keats poem is expressive, beautiful, challenging and very well known. Like the poem, the music has different moods. There are soft harmonies and more urgent ones. Quiet reflective moments and massive climactic gestures. The solo violin weaves in and out of the choral textures like a muse, leading the music forward towards the central moment of the poem, 'now more than ever seems it rich to die'.
Sitting in the audience is always a nerve-wracking experience for a composer - will the piece 'work', is it any good, will the listeners appreciate it, will the performers manage the music and the occasion? Conductor and friend David Temple brought the forces of the Hertfordshire Chorus and the London Orchestra da Camera together brilliantly and I was completely thrilled with the sounds they made. It was a real moment of joy to finally hear the music come together. Many thanks to the choir, David, Rod and all who made the commission happen. I look forward to the next performance at the Sage Gateshead next May, and hopefully to many more performances. To listen to an extract from the premiere and see a short film about the commissioning of the work, visit Hertfordshire Chorus' You Tube Channel
The Choir - BBC Radio 3, Sunday 25 September
What a privilege to spend an hour with Aled Jones at the end of the summer, recording material for The Choir, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 25 September at 5.00pm. The program featurea music which links choral and jazz elements and will include music of mine alongside jazz giants Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. Chatting with Aled was really good fun and we discussed the way I developed my music-making and how pieces like Mass in Blue came to be written.
YouTube
YouTube is the Great Juke Box in the Sky and it has become one of the most utilised methods of finding out about new music (and anything really.. those old cricket clips from the 70s. . . funny cat habits. . . Bill and Ben. . .!), so it has been interesting to start presenting some of my music in this way. We worked with film maker Julian Brookes from Wildwater TV (www.wildwater.tv) to create some material specifically for Mass in Blue. The trailer he has made looks great - and many thanks to all those choirs and musicians who allowed us to film their performances of Mass in Blue and use them in the film. We also did some live performances of the Will Todd Trio with the wonderful Bethany Halliday singing three tracks as well as an instrumental version of Once in Royal David's City. These can be seen at www.youtube.com/user/tyalgumpress