O Lord, you have searched me out

Version 1

Scoring: SATB a cappella

Date: 2024

Here is a setting of Psalm 139, in two versions, which begins "O Lord, you have searched me out and known me." The psalm is a deeply personal reflection by the psalmist on the "wonder of my being" and on the inescapability of God's love, wherever we might try to hide, and whatever we might do ourselves or might experience - even death. This gentle setting uses the full range of all four/three choral voices, with just a few divisi passages near the end of the composition in the lower parts. The pslam should be sung meditatively, without too much drama, even in the fortissimo passages, aiming for a sense of wonder and inner peace.

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

YouTube video scores for practice:
Full version
Soprano
Alto

Tenor

Bass

Version 2

Scoring: SABar and piano

Date: 2024

Here is a setting of Psalm 139, which begins "O Lord, you have searched me out and known me." The psalm is a deeply personal reflection by the psalmist on the "wonder of my being" and on the inescapability of God's love, wherever we might try to hide, and whatever we might do ourselves or might experience - even death. This gentle setting uses the full range of all four choral voices, with just one divisi passage at the end of the composition in the tenor and bass parts. The piece should be sung meditatively, without too much drama, even in the fortissimo passages, aiming for a sense of wonder and inner peace.

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

YouTube video scores for practice:
Full version
Soprano
Alto

Baritone

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me;

you know all my sitting down and rising;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You mark all journeys and my resting place

and are acquanited with all my ways.

For not a word is on my tongue

but, Lord, you know it altogether.

You encompass me, behind and before me,

you lay you hand upon me.

O where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I climb up to heaven you are there;

you are there if the grave is where I lie.

If I take the wings of the morning,

or dwell in the depths of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

your right hand hold me fast.

You created my innermost parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I thank you for the wonder of my being,

I marvel at all your works.

Amen.

A British Tar (Gilbert & Sullivan)

Scoring: TTBB barbershop quartet

Date: 2024

"A British Tar" is one of the most popular songs from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "HMS Pinafore", and it deserves to be sung more widely. Here it is arranged for unaccompanied barbershop quartet from the original trio plus orchestra/piano. In the operetta the song is supposedly composed by Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, "to encourage independence of thought and action in the lower branches of the service [the Navy], and to teach the principle that a British sailor is any man's equal." It should be sung with as much mock pomp as can be mustered, and I suggest that in bars 10 to 16 and again bars 42 to 48 the first bass singer(s) should (especially when singing to a foreign audience) clearly indicate which part of the sailor's body is being referred to!

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Repton Fugue (2 versions)

Version 1 scoring: Wind Quintet

Date: 2024

A short, attractive fugue for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon), inspired by and based on Hubert Parry's much-loved hymn "Dear Lord and Father", whose melody is entitled "Repton". The fugue's structure results from a fascinating online Fugue Writing course run by CityLit, London, which I attended in the first half of 2024. The course presents and explains the eighteenth-century ideas of a fully developed fugue, which culminated in J.S. Bach's extraordinary achievement, the "Well Tempered Clavier", and which has been used in various forms by composers ever since.

The fugal "rules" are here treated rather as guidelines in order to create a fugue more immediately appealing to 21st century listeners, but the piece attempts to maintain the general structure found in classic fugues. The initial subject is quirky and tuneful (in fact a bit of an ear-worm), but it immediately goes on to include counter-subjects, tonal answers, codettas, episodes, middle entries, inverted subjects, strettos, a pedal and a final entry, plus a relatively long coda in which Parry's original melody is celebrated exuberantly. These different sections and techniques are all labeled in the score to add an educational dimension to the composition.

Those who know my "Repton Variations" for wind sextet will recognise the opening and ending, at least in outline, but they will soon find the rest to be more technically developed, if rather less serious, from the very beginning! The piece lasts just under three minutes.

I am most grateful to pianist and lecturer Karl Lutchmayer, who tutored the course, for his help and ideas in the writing of this fugue.

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Version 2 scoring: Wind Sextet (fl, ob, cl, bass cl, horn, bsn)

Date: 2024

This version for the slightly larger ensemble adds material from my "Repton Variations" and could be used as an alternative to the final variation in that piece. However, it can also stand alone. As I have written above, it makes the fugue more developed and structured, and perhaps it is a little more satisfying like this...?

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Soave sia il vento (Mozart)

Scoring: SATB choir and strings

Date:  2022 (updated 2024)

This lovely aria from Mozart's opera "Cosi fan tutte" is a blessing for a sea crossing that the weather will be kind, the waves calm and all good things will happen to us. There are massive undercurrents in the opera, however, hidden beneath this song, and although beautiful, it should be sung slightly po-faced! The original is for three soloists and orchestra, but here Roy Bell has arranged the choral parts for SATB choir and Philip Le Bas has reduced the orchestra to a string quintet.

Links: pdf (score) - pdf (parts) - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Words:

Soave sia il vento, tranquilla sia l'onda,

ed ogni elemento benigno risponda ai nostri desir.

Men of Harlech

Scoring: TTBB choir a cappella

Date:  2024

"March of the Men of Harlech" is the Welsh National Hymn. Here it is arranged by John Hyatt Brewer (1856-1931) and adapted by me for a cappella TTBB choir (plus "solo".) It is admittedly a thoroughly violent, anti-Saxon (yes, that ancient!) marching song, but it deserves to be sung as the melody is so well-loved and it is so full of drama and excitement. Extra sound effects are introduced by the "solo" part imitating trumpets and drums, and by all the singers with loud (on the spot?) bootsteps! Brewer's harmonisation also keeps the interest up through both verses. Pace Welshmen, perhaps this could be "hammed up" a little?

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Words:
1. Men of Harlech honour calls us,

No proud Saxon e'er appalls us!

On we march, whate'er befall us,

Never shall we fly!

Forward, lightly bounding,

To the trumpets sounding,

Forward ever, backward never,

The proud foe astounding;

Fight for father, sister, mother,

Each is bound to each as brother,

And with faith in one another

We will win or die.

2. Tho' our mothers may be weeping,

Tho' our sisters may be keeping

Watch for some, who now are sleeping

On the battle field,

Still the trumpets' braying,

Sounds on, ever saying,

Let each bowman pierce a foeman,

And ne'er stop the slaying,

Till invaders learn to fear us,

And no Saxon linger near us;

Men of Wales! our God doth hear us,

Never will we yield!

Early One Morning

Scoring: TTBB choir a cappella
Date: 2017/revised 2024
"Early One Morning" is a simple arrangement for TTBB barbershop chorus of the well known folk song. Although its subject is sad and full of melancholy, it should not be sung too slowly, but with simplicity and compassion.
Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Words:
1.
Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,
I heard a young maid sing in the valley below.
Oh, don't deceive me, oh, never leave me.
How could you use a poor maiden so?

2.
Remember the vows that you made to your Mary.
Remember the bow'r where you vowed to be true.
Oh, don't deceive me, oh, never leave me.
How could you use a poor maiden so?

3.
Oh, gay is the garland and fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to place upon thy brow.
Oh, don't deceive me, oh, never leave me.
How could you use a poor maiden so?

4.
Thus sang the poor maiden, her sorrows bewailing.
Thus sang the poor maid in the valley below.
Oh, don't deceive me, oh, never leave me.
How could you use a poor maiden so?

Drop, drop, slow tears

Scoring: SATB choir and organ
Date: 2021 (updated 2023)
Five (now seven!) years on from the original version of my "Drop, drop, slow tears" (see below), here is a major revision of the piece adding an important organ part and expanding the whole piece slightly. I am hoping it now has added drama! 

With thanks to members of the Morley College Composition Workshop, and especially to Dr Paul Sarcich, for their input and ideas on this piece.
Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6

Or see it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pBaWpNsaUYw

  

Scoring: SATB choir a cappella
Date: 2016
A short setting of the classic words of the Jacobean poet Phineas Fletcher. This passionate poem expresses heartfelt regret and penitential remorse for sin. It was most famously set to music as a hymn by Orlando Gibbons and more recently as an anthem by William Walton. This new anthem for SATB choir tries to capture in a more modern way the drama and depth of the words, while retaining a simplicity that enables it to be sung by a church choir. It is particularly suitable for Holy Week services or more generally in Advent and Lent. It might also be sung at Remembrance services.
Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib

Words:

Drop, drop, slow tears,

And bathe those beauteous feet
Which brought from Heaven
The news and Prince of Peace.

Cease not, wet eyes,
His mercy to entreat;
To cry for vengeance
Sin doth never cease.

In your deep floods
Drown all my faults and fears;
Nor let His eye
See sin, but through my tears.