Howard Skempton

Out of your sleep is a fresh-sounding Advent carol rich in rhythmic variation and subtle detail. Written for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, the carol provides opportunities for the choir to s...

Beautifully crafted, this short work for 4 hands conjures up precisely the imagery the title suggests. Calm, lilting, melodic, but requiring technical skill, it is a welcome addition to the piano duet...

Featured on pianist William Howard's album Sixteen Contemporary Love Songs, this evocative miniature is simple but rewarding, with a repeating eight-bar chord progression that produces a kaleidoscopic...

More sweet than my refrain is a tender miniature for three-part choir set to the text of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The motet features on the new Ars Nova Copenhagen recording, 'First Drop' (Cante...

Gloss could be considered a companion piece to Random Girl (also for oboe and vibraphone), although it is rhythmically more formal and more restrained melodically.

Written for the Birmingham Schools Recorder Sinfonia, this engaging work is suitable for amateur performers. The mixed compound time signatures introduce some learning opportunities, while the melodic...

Winter: My Secret is a setting for soprano, recorder, cello, and harpsichord of a poem by Christina Rossetti. It was commissioned by the Ida Carroll Trust for a concert to mark the 80th birthday of Ho...

Field Notes is a compact, one-movement piece of chamber music scored for oboe, violin, viola, and cello. The work is full of harmonic interest with chromatic and melodic passages shared equally betwee...

Sharing its scoring with Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, this work makes full use of the wealth of instrumental combinations available within the septet. The haunting yet quirky theme around which t...

Six miniatures for guitar, these instrumental 'songs' were a set work for the final of the London International Guitar Competition 2015. With lilting rhythms and simple lines, these folk-like pieces e...

This work for clarinet and string quartet is in three movements: a subdued prelude, an airy interlude, and a bluesy postlude.

The Moon is Flashing was originally scored for tenor solo and full orchestra, but has here been rescored for chamber ensemble, broadening its reach to smaller ensembles.

The Moon is Flashing was originally scored for tenor solo and full orchestra, but has here been rescored for chamber ensemble.This set of parts contains parts for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. T...

Suite from existing ballet for 2 cellos and percussion

Five Preludes were commissioned by the International Guitar Festival at Bath Spa University College with the financial assistance of South West Arts and Keller S.A. It has been recorded by Tom Kersten...

Sotto Voce consists of an intriguing interplay of isolated notes for the three instruments, with a good deal of pizzicato in the strings.

Garland demonstrates the composer's typically thoughtful approach to form and melodic material, the title of this work reflecting the circularity of both.

These three pieces serve as companion pieces to Reminiscence (2001) and Beguine (2002). Flight of Fancy takes its cue from Beguine; A Piece of the Action has the pace and character of a relaxed march;...

This is based on the opening bars of the Sarabande from Bach's second cello suite in D minor. 'Par la bande' means 'in a roundabout way' and suggests a circularity of form and a less than direct appro...

The opening movement of this five-movement work features the oboe, being a setting of a solo piece written by the composer in memory of Barbara Hepworth. The second is a lyrical canon for oboe, clarin...

Random Girl is a short, lyrical piece highlighting the melodic aspect of the vibraphone which engages in sinuous dialogue with the oboe.

The words are by Kamala Das who was born in Malabar in 1934 and is one of India's most distinguished poets. The setting evokes the suppleness and richness of Indian music.

This is a collection of 36 piano pieces dating from 1995 to 2002. At times enigmatic, at others direct, the writing captures and reflects a myriad of moods, revealing Skempton's highly original voice....

Howard Skempton is admired for the concision of his musical language, and Nature's Fire is illustrative of his style, deploying its base material with great deftness to achieve a musically effective s...

From the collection For Him all Stars, 'Into this world, this day did come' is a meditative carol by Howard Skempton, scored for SSA unaccompanied. Featuring a frequently-changing time signature and l...