Killing My Darlings

On this occasion it’s not one but multiple killings that i’m commemorating. In 2005 i composed a number of short hymns and motets, most of which were planned to be incorporated into a very much larger work that i began around the same time (a darling that will itself, one …

Extra Abbatia for piano quartet was completed on 26 January 2009. It was composed during my doctoral studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, following a request from the Schubert Ensemble (during a residency) for works lasting around one minute.

A Lenten Prayer for SATB choir was completed on 17 February 1995. My first choral work, it was commissioned by the local cathedral to be performed as the introit at a service marking the beginning of Lent. As such, the text i used was a paraphrase of Isaiah 58, verse …

My Suite for solo violin was completed on 17 January 1995. It took the form of a 13-minute theme and variations, based on a song called ‘Ich bin der Doktor Eisenbart‘ (which i found in an anthology of German student songs), though the theme appeared at the end rather than …

i’ve been thinking a lot during the last couple of years about what it means to be a composer. One of the unexpected personal side-effects of the pandemic was that it made my compositional impulse shut down entirely (it only began switching on again late last year). For the first …