Choir Works
This page is devoted to my choral works. The earlier ones are published by Universal Edition and Ricordi London, the later ones are available directly from me.
Please feel free to peruse the sound and score excerpts of these works – I am happy to make available complete PDF perusal scores and complete sound recordings to listen to; interested parties should contact me through the website’s email. I can supply directly any number of the later works for performance and can provide contact details for the relevant people at UE or Ricordi for the earlier ones.
Please note that The Beloved and her Lover is available to listen to in its entirety on the website’s Jukebox, on the album One Day Fine.
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| nine(birds)here (1990, 3') |
Limbo (1999, 5½') |
Under the lark full cloud (1999, 11') |
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| bluebrighteyes (1999, 5') |
Little red fish (2006, 13') |
An tOileán (2007, 5') |
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| White guardians of the universe of sleep (2007, 8') |
Crabbing (2007, 3½') |
Safe Harbour (2007, 4') |
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| The Stone House Dromod Harbour (2007, 4') |
The Harbour (2007, 5½') |
Bealach Conglais (2009, 4') |
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| The Beloved and Her Lover (2009, 9½') |
Haru no sono (2011, 2½') |
i carry your heart (2011, 5') |
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| Slouching towards Bethlehem |
The Wayfarer |
Leide beag |
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nine(birds)here (1990, 3’)
A setting of two short poems by E.E. Cummings, both with birds as their subject, the first slow, the second more mobile. My first choral piece and still to me a very attractive work, it has been sung by a number of choirs, both amateur and professional. Published by Universal Edition Ltd. |
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Limbo (1999, 5½‘)
This setting of Seamus Heaney’s eponymous and moving poem was written for the City of Derry Youth Choir. Published by Universal Edition Ltd. |
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Under the lark full cloud (1999, 11’)
This was a commission from the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and my first attempt at a ‘long’ choral piece. It is through-composed, following the structure of, as well as setting the text of Dylan Thomas’ wonderful Poem in October, written on his own 30th birthday, so it’s celebratory and nostalgic at the same time. The language is firmly modal, although with some rather ‘piquant’ harmonies to spice things up. Published by Universal Edition Ltd. |
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bluebrighteyes (1999, 5’)
A commission from the Cork International Choral Festival and one of my most difficult choral works, this is a setting of an intense love poem by Irish poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh While most of the language of the work is typically modal, the opening of the penultimate section is particularly challenging to sing, although highly effective in its reflection of the stormy text. Published by Universal Edition Ltd.
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Little red fish (2006, 13')
A setting of Oskar Kokoschka’s macabre German poem, Rot fischlein, this piece was another commission from the National Chamber Choir of Ireland for themselves and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet. The Raschers have been building up quite a folio of such works and the combination of voices and saxophones works surprisingly well. The language is more complicated than in many of my choral works, with the text often being split up into separate syllables and phonemes to create a mysterious and arresting soundworld. Published by Ricordi London Ltd. |
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An tOileán (2007, 5')
This piece was my first setting of an Irish-language poem, Deirdre Brennan’s popular The Island. The score is written phonetically so knowledge of the language is not necessary to sing it. Commissioned by the Carlow Young Artists Choir (now known as Aspiro), the division of voices is SS AA Bar. Available directly from the composer. |
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White guardians of the universe of sleep (2007, 8')
While not overly complicated to sing, this setting of a number of poems by E.E. Cummings needs either a double choir or, as was the original intention, one choir and a live recording system – the first half repeats during the second half of the work, at which point new material is introduced to accompany the first-half music. Available directly from the composer. |
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Crabbing (2007, 3½')
This energetic and joyful work is the opening movement of my large-scale choral cantata Harbouring. Jacob Polley’s evocative poem inspired an ebullient setting which can be accompanied either by piano or strings. Available directly from the composer. |
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Safe Harbour (2007, 4')
Another movement from Harbouring and a real contrast to Crabbing, Helen Pizzey’s text is a tender love poem and the stillness and intensity of the music reflects that. Available directly from the composer. |
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The Stone House Dromod Harbour (2007, 4')
This is one of two poems by Irish poet Gerard Fanning I set in Harbouring. It’s a ruminative and reflective work requiring a double choir. Available directly from the composer. |
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The Harbour (2007, 5½')
The final movement from Harbouring and an unashamedly straightforward, tender setting of a nostalgic poem by Winfred Letts. Available directly from the composer. |
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Bealach Conglais (2009, 4')
This is my second setting of a Deirdre Brennan Irish-language poem, again set phonetically. Commissioned by the New Dublin Voices choir, they premiered it at the Marktoberdorf Festival in Germany. Although an amateur choir, NDV is very adventurous and so I was able to introduce some interesting things into the writing. |
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The Beloved and Her Lover (2009, 9½')
Another phonetic Irish-language work, this time a setting of the opening verses from the Song of Solomon. The choir sings the lines of the Beloved, and these sections are more harmonically and texturally complex, deliberately providing a vivid contrast with the soloist (male or female) sections. An additional textural element is supplied through the use of the Irish language version of the text which is quite beautiful in its own way. The Beloved and Her Lover was commissioned by Aisling Ryan with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland and is a favourite of mine. Available directly from the composer. |
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Haru no sono (2011, 2½')
This tiny piece was written for the school choir of Mount St Mary’s in Claremorris, County Mayo. It’s a simple and beautiful setting of an old Japanese poem, in phonetic Japanese. It’s also straightforward to sing but very effective. Available directly from the composer. |
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i carry your heart (2011, 5')
This piece was commissioned as a wedding present for the choirmaster of the Mornington Singers in Dublin. The text is another poem by E.E. Cummings, one of his most direct love poems. Available directly from the composer. |
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Slouching towards Bethlehem
This is a two-movement choral work, each movement a setting of one of WB Yeats’ so-called ‘Apocalyptic’ poems, which were inspired by sources as various as Theosophy and the writings of William Blake. Some of these poems have their roots in mythology – Irish, Christian, English – and famous ‘journey’ legends such as those of Arthur and Oisín. Others have clear resonances with what was happening socially and politically at the time. The language of these poems is by turns dark, pessimistic and strange, evoking unsettling, even nightmarish scenes.
Slouching towards Bethlehem was commissioned by the 2015 Cork International Choral Festival for Chamber Choir Ireland with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland. |
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The Wayfarer
This is one movement from a large-scale piece called Wayfarers (2016) for soprano and tenor soloist, SATB choir and string quartet. Wayfarers was commissioned by Ireland’s National Concert Hall to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising and all the texts are taken from either letters or poems written by some of the main protagonists in the rebellion, although with a focus on the intimate and personal rather than on wider political themes.
The Wayfafer is a setting of a rather fatalistic, although lovely poem by Pádraic Pearse and the style reflects the close-harmony and energetic style found in some Eastern European vocal singing, particularly in the Balkan region. |
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Leide beag
Leide Beag (2020) is a four-movement work inspired by the celebrated Irish language texts of the Aistriú collection, housed in NUI Galway. The work explores migration from different points of view in texts either originally in Irish or translated into that language. The work was commissioned by Galway 2020 for Tonnta vocal group, led by Robbie Blake. Cuireadh do Mhuire is the last movement, a setting of a poem by Máirtín Ó Direáin inviting the Virgin Mary and her child to come and find a welcome in the islands lying off the west coast of Ireland. |
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