New Horizons

Setting a heart-breaking wartime text by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Pott has created a beautifully poignant piece befitting any Remembrance occasion. Written in memory of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, a bom...

I sing of a Maiden combines flowing lines with rhythmic irregularity, and ends with an airy weightlessness which, in the words of the composer, echoes the vernal flavour of the words. Although rhythmi...

In this unaccompanied setting of Thomas A. Clark's poem, Jackson beautifully conjures up the atmosphere of the onset of nightfall. Featuring a wide range of rhythms, textures, and dynamics, this is a...

This is a setting of the words used to conclude a communion service: 'The Mass is ended, thanks be to God.' The tenor's heraldic opening leads into the highly rhythmic 'Deo Gratias' section. Written f...

Ever-changing in mood and pace, La Musique is a setting of poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Charles Baudelaire on the transformative power of music. Jackson musically represents the complex psychological...

Here Jackson sets early Christian texts by St Augustine of Hippo, Baldwin of Forde, and St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi alongside words by Estonian poet Doris Kareva. Each movement offers a change of mood,...

Setting a fifteenth-century English text containing some short Latin passages, this is a joyful, dance-like carol with a medieval feel. The spirited, lilting melody begins in the sopranos and altos bu...

'Rigwreck' sets a text by poet Pierre Joris on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Frequent vocal divisions in up to eight parts, a wide range of dynamic expression, spoken lin...

This is a simple and elegant miniature in characteristic Skempton style, with graceful choral homophony, seamlessly fluctuating time signatures, and hypnotic, meandering harmonies. The text, by Willia...

O Sapientia is a tender setting of one of the seven Advent 'O' Antiphons. The rhythmic unison in this chorale-like setting brings an element of purity and calm, typical of Skempton's musical language.

Set to words by the Estonian poet Doris Kareva, Our flags are wafting in hope and grief is a humanist anthem to the power of conviction and community in times of social turmoil.

Setting a stanza of Tennyson's monumental and profound poem In Memoriam A.H.H., Jackson's work deals with reflections on loss and grief.

A challenging yet delicate anthem, with subtle key-signature changes, vocal divisions in up to eight parts, and alternating homophonic and polyphonic passages, the piece combines excerpts from the syn...

This work presents two contrasting yet coherent motets: The joyful 'Confirma hoc Deus', with its jubilant, melismatic motif; and the solemn 'Factus est', which features aleatoric sequences set against...

Jackson's Holy is the true light sets a text translated from the Salisbury Diurnal that emphasizes the solace of faith in times of conflict. The fluid changes in time and key signatures and effective...

Cecilia McDowall's fresh and appealing style is amply displayed in this cycle, subtitled 'Three Shakespeare Songs' and first performed by the BBC Singers. In total, six Shakespeare texts are used, and...

Setting part of a Eucharistic hymn text by Thomas Aquinas, this piece is suitable for liturgical or concert use. Flowing and expressive, it features homophonic sections, melismatic lines, and optional...

This celebratory anthem for double choir is set to the words of the Roman lyric poet Horace. Jackson combines declamatory unison passages for full choir with more lyrical polyphonic phrases shared bet...

This reflective and affirmatory communion motet features fluid shifts between 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures and expressive melodic lines that are often underpinned by a drone.

This serene communion motet sets the last two verses of the Pangue Lingua and oscillates between 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures. The melodic lines are expressive and at times melismatic, and the divisi i...

A setting of Shakespeare's much-loved Sonnet 18, Bednall's expressive work highlights this timeless text with sumptuous harmony, including pleasing tonal shifts and topical false relations. Various ch...

This setting of texts from Cymbeline and The Merchant of Venice, and Sonnet 98, is characterised by inventive textures and vibrant word-setting. The harmonic language is mostly diatonic but never plai...

Commissioned by Ralph Woodward and the Fairhaven Singers in memory of Dora Kemp, one of the choir's sopranos, God is Light sets lines from Psalm 139, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 John. It moves from an unse...

The text for this piece is a response to Allen Ginsberg's A Supermarket in California by Latvian poet Karlis Verdins, translated by Ieva Lesinska. Jackson exploits its dramatic intent, giving space fo...

With a newly written text by Angier Brock, this compelling anthem by Cecilia McDowall is a welcome addition to the traditional Easter repertoire. Easter Light explores a variety of styles and colours,...