Howard Skempton

The pairing of a slowish and a lively movement has long been attractive to composers, certainly since the days of pavanes and galliards. Skempton uses the contrast to great effect here, where if 'Rest...

Six miniatures. 'Progressively laying out aspects of cello technique - double stopping, pizzicato, glacial harmonies - and then combining them, the work builds to a substantial fourth movement and the...

Written the year before the Six Figures, Arioso is a study in scalic and chordal figures, retaining Skempton's signature simplicity and repetitiveness throughout. Grail Transformation and Epiphany bri...

The piece is a suite of six contrasting miniatures built around fragments of melodies which are repeated, each time with subtle variations. Particularly striking is the simple, folk-like melody of the...

In this exuberant solo work, the principal idea is an arching melody that explores the full range of the instrument.

Comprising four separate 'Lamentations', this work takes its text from John Donne's The Lamentations of Jeremy, and is set in Howard Skempton's characteristic pared-down style.

This beautiful, simple piece for mezzo soprano and piano sets part of Alexander McCall Smith's poem, Winter Poem. It was first performed at Clare Hall College, Cambridge on 8th December 2012.

Brave Guy of Warwick sets text from Lines written at Warwick by George Crabbe (1754-1832) which describes a portion of the legend of Guy of Warwick. This piece is engaging and characterful, and audien...

Parry relishes in warm harmonies, with occasional chromatic inflections, in his calm but captivating setting of the anonymous fifteenth-century text There is no rose. Offprinted from Carols for Choirs...

Slip-stream was composed for Ensemble Bash. The vibraphone is the protagonist, opening the work with a melodic idea which serves as a refrain. Elsewhere, the glockenspiel and vibraphone are held toget...

More sweet than my refrain is a tender miniature for three-part choir set to the text of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The motet features on the new Ars Nova Copenhagen recording, 'First Drop' (Cante...

Orchestral material and vocal scores are available on hire.

McDowall's Candlemas is a celebratory and powerful piece. Making use of choral divisions and suspensions and a dynamic organ part, this setting of Denise Levertov's text (on the Presentation of Jesus...

Set to text by John Drinkwater, this work is deceptively simple, making use of repetition and carefully placed harmonies which shift subtly to match the text. A beautiful and unusual setting which is...

With a simple, appealing melody and a flowing accompaniment, The Colours of Christmas evokes a touching sense of longing for the joys of the festive season.

First published in The Oxford Book of Flexible Carols, Alan Smith's In the Beginning is presented here in an alternative mixed-voice arrangement. Kevin Carey's text is set to gently lilting music, per...

This robust carol employs strong, dancing rhythms in the outer sections, while the reflective middle section for unaccompanied voices offers a moment of repose and contrast.

A French traditional carol arranged for mixed voices by John Rutter. Orchestral scores and parts are also available. Offprinted from the collection Joy to the World.

The weather, the most quintessentially English of topics, was the inspiration for this work. Chilcott weaves together a tapestry of well-known weather rhymes, such as 'The rain it raineth every day up...

This is a gentle and graceful anthem setting the well-loved words usually ascribed to St Francis of Assisi. It has been arranged for upper voices from the composer's Lux Perpetua, a choral work on the...

This straightforward but effective a cappella arrangement of the well-known English carol speaks directly to the listener, and its occasional unexpected harmonic turns will delight. Offprinted from Ca...

Optional parts for bass and drum set enliven this joyous arrangement of a traditional spiritual. Propelled by a light swing tempo, the mood grows more and more euphoric with each succeeding stanza of...

Parry brings a fresh take to the traditional French carol in an upbeat arrangement that has a memorable refrain and driving rhythms, balanced with polyphonic, graceful verses. Offprinted from from Car...