Martin Butler

For viola & piano. This tiny, delicate piece has something of the Debussyian prelude about it. It deftly deals with that familiar theme of snow, not rising above a piano dynamic throughout.

This joyous arrangement of a traditional spiritual for choir and orchestra is propelled by a light swing tempo. The mood grows more and more euphoric with each succeeding stanza of text, and the uplif...

A short work for solo cello, Siward's River Song is drawn from the music associated with a character in Butler's opera A Better Place. Siward is the ghost of a drowned lighterman, trapped in the past....

Archer's beautiful setting of this well-known anonymous text provides a wonderful alternative to more familiar versions. This charming Advent carol is also available in an arrangement for upper voices...

Issued to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, this verse anthem by William Child was composed for King Charles II in 1660-3, and is published here for the first time. It contains lively solo...

A show piece for solo horn, Hunding is named after the brutish and bitter woodsman in Wagner's Valkyrie, memorable for the blood-curdling nature of his horn calls.

For violin and piano. A short lyrical work based on music form the opera A Better Place, and in particular on the melancholy descending scales and rising fifths associated with the character of Suzann...

This concerto is an 18-minute single span of music, although it is broken down into three sections - fast, slow, faster. The musical language explores folk-derived materials and performing practices.

This a beautiful and meditative setting of a translated text from Carmina Gadelica, a collection of Gaelic hymns, prayers, and other texts. With gentle suspensions and exquisite harmonies, this anthem...

Sarah Quartel brings a fresh take on a familiar fifteenth-century text in this enchanting carol. The dialogue between Mary and the infant Jesus is woven to a beguiling folk-like melody, in 6/8 metre,...

This strikingly effective carol for alto solo and a cappella choir combines verse by Robert Louis Stevenson with an ancient Latin antiphon text in music of great spaciousness and lyricism. Offprinted...

With words by the composer, this mesmerising piece comes from the large-scale work, Snow Angel, and celebrates the coming of winter and the everlasting nature of music. Includes an optional cello part...

Composed for the spnm 'Composing for Kids' initiative, the work consists of settings of poems by pupils from two of the participating schools. The poems are varied in mood and thematic material, yet s...

In this unaccompanied setting of Thomas A. Clark's poem, Jackson beautifully conjures up the atmosphere of the onset of nightfall. Featuring a wide range of rhythms, textures, and dynamics, this is a...

This inspiring and uplifting setting of a well-known text will appeal to all SATB choirs looking for fresh and accessible new repertoire for general church use.

Preludes Inegales, is named after an improvisatory group of which Butler is a member. It explores ways in which improvised material can be worked on in more formal compositional ways. Butler then impr...

For solo piano. Funerailles is probably best thought of as an extended study in piano sonorities, at times deep, dark, and resonant, at others vivid and bright.

A work in one movement, described by the composer as 'fanciful', which exploits the full range of keyboard colours.

This volume is an eclectic mix of short works composed over a number of years. Butler's idiomatic writing for the piano is instantly appealing and captures a wide variety of moods. His musical languag...

For chamber ensemble (2Cl, Vla, Vc, Pno, Perc(Marimba, Bodhrssn)). On Claudy Banks is a quiet response to the musical and lyrical content of a traditional folk song of the same name about a woman mour...

For trumpet in B flat and soprano. A setting of Walt Whitman's The Mystic Trumpeter (1872), in which the trumpeter (positioned off stage, or otherwise out of sight) imitates and echoes the soprano's m...