Jonathan Harvey

The Faber Choral Signature Series introduces a wealth of new or recently written choral music to choirs in search of fresh repertoire. The series draws in a rich diversity of living composers and incl...

Written for the choir of Westminster Abbey, Harvey's Missa Brevis is an inspiring piece for any cathedral choir or ambitious mixed-voice ensemble.

This work is for piano and CD. The tape part retunes the piano, so that there are microtonal tensions between the live piano and the tape and a close contrapuntal relationship between the two.

Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) was a British composer who studied at St Johns, Cambridge and Princeton, and who later taught at various universities and conservatoires across Europe and North America. Hi...

. . . lush chords and sonorities, ecstatic rhythmic energy within constantly changing metres, intricate birdsong-like arabesques and a primary-coloured approach to the orchestra. Stephen Banfield, The...

Predominantly hushed and serene, Plainsongs for Peace and Light proved to be Jonathan Harvey's final work. It sees Harvey re-examining the very fundamentals of his craft - superimposing lines of plain...

The text of this work is by Bishop J Cosin, based on Veni Creator Spiritus. The music is based on a pentatonic chord throughout, and reflects the floating rhythms of plainchant.

This unaccompanied motet, written for the choir of St Paul's Cathedral, relates to the three Mary's in Harvey's church opera Passion and Resurrection.

Music set to words translated into English from a poem by Jalal Al-Din Rumi. This piece was commissioned and first performed by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain in Fiji on 23 July 1996.

Remember, O Lord was written to mark the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Harvey's dark and sonorous tone creates an intense and majestic atmosphere. This piec...

The Faber Choral Signature Series introduces a wealth of new or recently written choral music to choirs in search of fresh repertoire. The series draws in a rich diversity of contemporary composers an...

Against these vivid flashes of joy and colour is set a chant - the Sanskrit of the Heart Sutra - which acts as a ground from which the ‘forms of emptiness' briefly emerge, and against which they...

This anthem is scored for SSAATTBB and is unaccompanied. It was written in in 1976 for Martin Neary and the Winchester Cathedral Choir.

Carol for SATB Choir A Cappella. From Cantata I composed in 1965.

Wagner Dream by Jonathan Harvey is an opera in nine scenes for soloists, actors, chorus, large ensemble and electronics. Instrumentation: Vairochana (B)/Ananda (T)/Prakriti (S)/Mother of Prakriti(M)/B...

Songs and Haiku is a previously unreleased collection of songs for mezzo-soprano and piano, published to mark what would have been Jonathan Harvey's 80th birthday in 2019. Two haiku (the first for pia...

In these canticles written for the 1978 Southern Cathedrals Festival, Harvey follows in the tradition of Britten and Tippett in fusing ancient ritual with thoroughly modern means of expression. Choral...

Resurrection is based on simple vocal triads that perfectly suit a resonant building. It is ceremonial and repetitive in character, in short, sacred music rather than secular.

Commissioned by the University of Sussex to celebrate their Silver Jubilee in 1986, God is Our Refuge sets Psalm 46 and is one of Harvey's easier choral works offering all choirs an ideal introduction...

This celebratory anthem is a vivid setting of Psalm 148, full of rhythmic drive and exuberant choral writing. It well demonstrates Harvey's skill in using a contemporary idiom that nevertheless appeal...