With Cecelia McDowall
Five Seasons - A Green Cantata, celebrating the organic landscape in the 21st century
2006
Commissioned by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Choir with funding from
Respect Organics and
logistical support from the Soil Association. The
World Premiere was on 18 November, 2006 at
Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, with a second performance
at the Soil Association Annual Conference in
Cardiff in January 2007. FIVE SEASONS grew out of
their residencies at five different organic farms
across Britain, in Dorset, Cumbria, Lincolnshire,
North Wales and on the Isle of Mull. The result is
an exciting and innovative cantata for 34 voices
and string quintet plus oboe and harp, which takes
a refreshing look at the pastoral tradition.
Cantate Astra
2006
City Almanac
2006
Lonely Hearts
2005
is a setting of three of Christie’s poems, each
offering a different view of being alone. The first
song, 'Autumn Migration', describes the flight of a
flock of birds across the sky pursued by a ‘single
late flyer’ stitching ‘together earth and sky’. The
second song, 'Night Garden', evokes the delicate
fragrance of a still summer’s evening in which ‘lives
too small to risk the light’ bravely begin to stir.
The final song, 'Would Like To Meet', presents a
‘Lonely Hearts’ column, with a comic difference.
Commissioned by the Canterbury Chamber Choir and
first performed in 2005.
White Fox Woman
2003
Deep Waters
2000
A darkly comic opera that makes an ecological point,
commissioned and performed by W11 Children’s Opera,
as their millennium production. First performed at
St. James Norlands, London in 2000. DEEP WATERS
was specially written for a cast of over 80
children of widely-varied musical experience. The
action begins with a wild, raging storm. Four
children fall overboard to the bottom of the sea.
In this supernatural, aquatic world, where the
fish play havoc with each other in a bid to
survive, the children find that they can now
breathe. With a ghastly sense of impending doom,
they realize that it was no accident that brought
them here. They have a dangerous task to perform.
An opera that is witty but with a dark edge, it
has a serious issue at its heart – over-fishing.
Later performed elsewhere.
Inferno
1999
For countertenor, trumpet and percussion,
commissioned by the Fibonacci Sequence and first
performed at St John’s, Smith Square, 1999, with Paul
Archibald on trumpet. INFERNO is a dramatic musical
piece for orchestra and male soprano, based on
writings of Dante and Rimbaud. It has been performed
at St. John’s, Smith Square, and elsewhere.
Play Ground
1999
For orchestra, 7 narrators, countertenor/mime, rap
artist and children’s voices, based on children’s
playground rhymes. Commissioned by London Musici and
HAPA (adventure play for children with disabilities
and special needs). First performed at St. John’s,
Smith Square, 1999, PLAY GROUND is a chanted-not-sung
cantata. At its first performance, the narrators were
played by Humphrey Burton, Susannah Simons, Edward
Petherbridge, and Lady Solti, among others.