Jonathan Harvey

This motet for unaccompanied SATB choir was written for the choir of Winchester Cathedral. An intimate work, full of rhythmic and harmonic subtlety, entirely shaped by the meaning of the words.

Forms of Emptiness is a work for mixed choir which sets words from the Buddhist Heart Sutra, in the original Sanskrit, and three poems by E.E. Cummings. The E.E. Cummings poems all have emphasis on th...

MARAHI is a hymn of adoration to the Divine Feminine in the form of the Virgin Mary and the buddhist Goddess Varahi. The divine love is envisaged as active in three realms: the angelic realm (major tr...

Ashes Dance Back was commissioned for the New London Chamber Choir in memory of Judie Campbell, by her husband, Philip. Ashes Dance Back for choir and electronics uses fragments of text from Andrew Ha...

In Jonathan Harvey’s Toccata for organ and tape an agile, brilliant organ part is set against a moto perpetuo stream of electronic sound. The 6-minute work was developed at IRCAM and was premiered in...

. . . a world of shimmering sounds and unusual moves. That world has a chaotic surface, yet there is an undeniable internal coherence and drama that engages the attention and the imagination. . . Mr H...

In Quartet no. 3 there is a dialectic between a surface texture which is fleeting and fragmented and an underlying structure which is very strictly repetitive. A number of ‘themes’ (ten, or twenty whe...

In Quartet no. 3 there is a dialectic between a surface texture which is fleeting and fragmented and an underlying structure which is very strictly repetitive. A number of ‘themes’ (ten, or twenty whe...

. . . a world of shimmering sounds and unusual moves. That world has a chaotic surface, yet there is an undeniable internal coherence and drama that engages the attention and the imagination. . . Mr H...

This one-movement quartet was generated entirely by the innocent unison melody which occurs near the beginning. Having written this melody I analysed it, (the first stage of departure from innocence)...

This one-movement quartet was generated entirely by the innocent unison melody which occurs near the beginning. Having written this melody I analysed it, (the first stage of departure from innocence)...

Chant in English implies a liturgical or ritualistic incantation. This two-minute piece is based on a drone and has a ceremonial character. It was originally written for viola and was then rewritten f...

These two brief and fragmented miniatures are based on similar and fugitive material, though they span the 10 years between 1967 and 1977. Dialogue is dedicated to Sharon McKinley and Song is dedicate...

Chant in english implies a liturgical or ritualistic incantation. This two-minute piece is based on a drone and has a ceremonial character. It was originally written for viola and was then rewritten f...

The piece was prompted by the experience of exposure to close lightning, and running fast before it in wild exhilaration, aware that it could kill at any moment. The flute, with its vivid connection t...

Electronic Equipment: mixer/amplifier/2 speakers/2 reverberator/microphones

Instrumentation: 2(II=picc).2.2.2 – 2200 – perc(1): 2 susp.cym/2 timp/2 rototoms/2 wdbl/2 tpl.bl/tgl/tam-t (with water trough) – strings (min 6.4.3.3.2)

Instrumentation: 2(II=picc).2.2.2 – 2200 – perc(1): 2 susp.cym/2 timp/2 rototoms/2 wdbl/2 tpl.bl/tgl/tam-t (with water trough) – strings (min 6.4.3.3.2)

Instrumentation: 3(II+III=picc).3(III=ca).3(III=bcl).3(III=cbsn) – 4331 – perc(2): 2 wdbl/tpl.bl/2 tgl/5 susp.cym/mark tree/t.bells/tam-t/guiro/4 c.bell/japanese temple bell/bongos/BD/gong – vib – gls...

Instrumentation: 3(=picc).2(II=ca).2(I=Ebcl.II=Ebcl+bcl).2(II=cbsn) – 4231 – perc(5): vib/glsp/lujon/mcas/xyl/coiled spring/mark tree/BD/tpl.bl/c.bell/mar/siz.cym/crot/gong/t.bells/guiro/4 oriental go...

Instrumentation: 3(III=picc).2.3(III=bcl).3(III=cbsn) – 4331 – perc(1): t.bells/glsp/2 oriental gong/3 wdbl/tpl.bl/tom-t/BD+foot ped – pno – harp – strings – reverberation unit + amplification (ad lib...