Choral Music of Our Time

This pair of English psalm settings for mixed choir is the newest addition to Watkins' growing collection of vocal music. Each under 5 minutes, they are fitting both for liturgical use and concert per...

Chorpartitur

The choice of 16th century texts, by Bronzino and Battiferri, reflects the interests of the dedicatee of these sonnets - Craig Hugh Smyth, a fine art historian and former director of the Villa I Tatti...

Like many Englishmen I had sung madrigals for pleasure - usually late at night with friends, after several glasses of wine. While these madrigals have their charm, and many are extremely beautiful, I...

Settings of medieval texts that feature singable and accessible straight-lined vocal movements suitable for both smaller and larger SATB choirs.

John Casken, who celebrates his 60th birthday in 2009, set Christina Rossetti's In the bleak mid-winter - a poem popularised by Gustav Holts' setting of the same name - for Alwinton and Holystone Chur...

Text from the well-known Christmas song is merged with a tune from Barry's own 4th String Quartet in this unconventional carol. With Barry's characteristic rich and unexpected harmonies, O Tannenbaum...

Text from the well-known Christmas song is merged with a tune from Barry's own 4th String Quartet in this unconventional carol. With Barry's characteristic rich and unexpected harmonies, O Tannenbaum...

A fresh, lyrical choral work which will haunt your memory. The text was derived from various sources such as the Bible, poetry and lyrics from pop songs which are paraphrased or alluded to not only in...

Sea Songs, commissioned jointly by Ars Nova Copenhagen and Glasgow Concert Halls, is a kind of sequel to Martland's Street Songs (originally written for the Kings Singers and Evelyn Glennie). As with...

The opening lines of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time provide the text for Gerald Barry's Long Time. Beginning 'For a long time I used to go to bed early', the work unfolds over gently rising an...

Chorpartitur

This beautiful work, originally written for the Hilliard Ensemble, has been arranged by the composer for full choral forces.

Composed for Northern Sinfonia Chorus and Gavin Osborn.

John Casken's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis was commissioned to mark the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East of England, where Casken lives. The book, dating from the 7th century, is on...

Commissioned by the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, this a cappella choral showpiece sets poems about the sea by Katrina Porteous.Voices gently rock and then tumble violently, mimicking the re...

The text of Karakia is a traditional Maori prayer, a homage to the elements and rhythms of nature. Every pitch in the piece is derived from the name of the composer's mother, who was born in New Zeala...

Gerald Barry's The coming of winter is a setting of an Irish poem dating from the 9th or 10th century, and was commissioned for the 34th Seminar on Contemporary Choral Music at University College, Cor...

A setting of a text by William Blake from his collection of poems Songs of Innocence and Experience for SATB choir, harp and strings. The poem is a lullaby in which a mother hopes her sleeping baby's...

One of Gavin Bryars' early major choral works, On Photography uses texts by Pope Leo XIII combining a modern subject matter (photography) and archaic language (Latin) with music of timeless beauty. Th...