Oxford University Press

A series of little books of short carefully graded folk tunes beginning with the simplest passages and progressing to more difficult leaps, rhythms, chromatics, and modulations. The later books introd...

Commissioned by Benenden School, Make We Merry is an eight-movement piece which sets texts from the 15th to 19th centuries to a variety of choral textures with a highly characterful accompaniment. A v...

Sarah Quartel brings a fresh take on a familiar fifteenth-century text in this enchanting carol. The dialogue between Mary and the infant Jesus is woven to a beguiling folk-like melody, in 6/8 metre,...

The Blackbird is a beautiful arrangement of a Welsh folksong. It sets the folksong in an English translation by Margery Hargest Jones.

Sounding heaven and earth is an organ piece inspired by Prayer, a sonnet by the metaphysical poet, George Herbert.

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...

The Orgelbüchlein Project is a long running project to complete Bach's unfinished collection of organ music. McDowall has composed music for 'ghost' Chorale 119 (336) BWV 258 as her contribution to co...

Inspired by four poems by poets from the Chinese Tang dynasty, this piece directly combines Chinese and Western musical traditions. An undercurrent of tranquil meditation runs through the expressive w...

It evokes a mysterious, icy landscape, with a simple quiet tune and slowly rocking chords. It is No. 2 of a suite of three songs, 'At the Turn of the Year', depicting scenes of winter.

This piece takes its inspiration from the Chinese legends of great bells which spontaneously ring without being struck. It requires a variety of interesting techniques from the performer, including st...

The Flea was commissioned as a work 'suitable for singing in an informal setting and easily memorised'. It is a free and humorous setting of John Donne's poem in which the poet attempts to seduce his...

Sacred and hallowed fire was commissioned by Harrison & Harrison as part of their 150 years celebration of organ building. It is one of a trilogy of works for organ by McDowall which draws from the po...

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...

This four-movement suite for organ is based on the divisions of the church year, and references plainsong and other hymns relevant to the seasons. Drawing on a wide range of colours and textures, the...

This strikingly effective carol for alto solo and a cappella choir combines verse by Robert Louis Stevenson with an ancient Latin antiphon text in music of great spaciousness and lyricism. Offprinted...

This setting of three stanzas from 'For the Fallen' is poignant and atmospheric. A serene refrain for unison voices is interposed between evocatively turbulent passages for SATB choir. The accompanime...

Setting an invigorating Easter text from the Song of Songs, this episodic anthem is full of expressive passages and lyrical melodies. The canonical soprano parts are echoed in the lower voices, contri...

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...

This continuous cycle (c.16 minutes without narrator, c.24 with narrator) intersperses seven poems by R. S. Thomas with seven movements for solo cello. The music is evocative, moving, and thoughtfully...

Jackson employs his signature harmonies and descriptive working of the text within an expansive polyphony to create a large-scale expressive anthem to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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...

Erkoreka sets a sixteenth-century poem which contemplates the eternal and boundless beauty of the heavens, and mankind's earthy estrangement from this realm. Serene sections contrast with surging dyma...

An uplifting and joyful concert setting of four texts exploring man's relationship with the earth. Brimming with energy, the work has a wonderful freshness and vitality. Chilcott selects a range of ev...