The idea for this piece came from a conversation/argument with a friend about which hymn tunes are 'bangers' (yes I'm aware how nerdy this is). I loved that we had very different but equally passionate opinions and so I decided to compose something which used two of our favourite tunes as the source material. 

The result was a light-hearted and exciting piece, radically different in tone from the original melodies, and as occasionally ludicrous as the conversation that inspired it.

For the purists, there is also a version for Organ.

Two-Tune Toccata

Three songs inspired in different ways by thinking about the environment. 

I wrote Beauty as a teenager; this is somewhat rewritten but the main tunes are the same, as are about 50% of the words. The other two songs were written after it was pointed out to me by Hazel Watson of Watson and Lockett commented on the dearth of folk music engaging with the ecological crisis. I set myself the challenge of writing a song that plays on folk tropes but accidentally wrote two. 

Recording and mixing aren't my fortes. I could spend ages trying to get these better, without achieving much, so I've posted them in rough and ready form as demos, because it's the songwriting I really want to share.

Carbon Kings demo

My 'Extinction Calypso' (words and music) orchestrated by John Cameron for Singing Allowed, conducted by Judith Sheridan.  

05. Extinction Calypso Final Mix.mp3

Conker Fight

"A Charm For Safe Crossing"
 CC Jennifer Vena Wood Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Lyrics:
middle part: I want to survive, I want to survive, I will survive, this crossing.
high part: All that I feel, is just feeling, I will survive, this crossing.
low part: Those that survived, and those that died, help me survive, this crossing

If you feel alone: https://livethroughthis.org

If you are in crisis, call the trans lifeline +1-877-565-8860, or the national suicide prevention hotline (988).

A Charm For Safe Crossing

Playing around with last verse arrangement for organ

Puer Nobis Unto Us a Boy is Born (Last Verse)

Thank you to the City of Oxford Choir and conductor Duncan Aspden for selecting "Monster" as the winning piece in their "Breaking Ground" competition. This recording is from the first performance, which took place on 28th March 2025 in Oxford University Museum of Natural History underneath a T-Rex skeleton!

In writing this piece, I saw a vision of a dinosaur skeleton emerging from a cliff after a storm,
caused by fossil-fuel-driven climate change. Lepidodendron, diaphorodendron, sigillaria and
calamites are the Latin names for four of the main types of trees that decayed and fossilised
to form coal. The music emerges from overlapping phrases of these Latin names in a way analogous to the trees fossilising into coal. Our use of this finite, polluting energy source (and likewise oil and other non-renewable fuels) has not only caused climate change, rising global temperatures, and storms like the one sung about here, but has brought almost all parts of our biosphere to the edge of disaster in the blink of a geological eye. 

When we see dinosaur skeletons, we should remember that our current dominion over this earth has been microscopically brief in comparison, and continuing the human race as we know it will require us to actively take care of the planet - something we have the capacity and knowledge to do, which no other previous inhabitants have had. Let's not waste that.

The complete text is below:

lepidodendron, diaphorodendron, sigillaria, calamites

Decayed (decades)
Compressed (centuries)
Fossilised (eons)
Remained,
Three hundred million years;
Trees grew to stone.

Then we dug deep,
Mined, refined, burned to ash:
Three hundred years of smoke in the sky…

Sunlight, through ghosts of ancient trees,
Warms the air, warms the sea:
A wind rises,
Waves whipped to calamity
by a Carboniferous curse,
Crashing on the coast,
Carving a cliff-face,
Stone falls away...

A great jaw bares its teeth;
A huge claw scratches at the sky.

The monster
is not in the cliff
not in the wind
not in the air
not in the sea
not in the sun
not in the coal.

We broke the ground;
Now, break the curse
And pray the trees forgive.

lepidodendron, diaphorodendron, sigillaria, calamites

Text by Chris Hutchings, available for other uses on request

Monster - Chris Hutchings: City of Oxford Choir and Duncan Aspden

No Nos Moverán/We Shall Not Be Moved

"A Prayer of St. Anselm," is a setting of a text by St. Anselm of Canterbury (in English translation from the original Latin). This recording 2017 by the Caritas Chamber Choir, Benedict Preece directing - from their CD, 'A Caritas Collection 2017'

A Prayer of St. Anselm

Summer will come again (20th Dec. 2020)

Chris Hutchings is a Scottish composer based in Edinburgh, specialising in works for choir. His works have been performed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland, New London Singers, Cappella Nova, Scottish Voices, the Edinburgh Quartet, Daniel's Beard, Pure Brass, and a wide variety of professional and amateur groups around the world. He has received commissions from several groups in the UK and USA. Recent prizes include the Murau Music Festival Composition prize in 2019, Kantos Choir's composition prize in 2021, and winning the City of Oxford Choir's  "Breaking Ground" competition in 2025.

For more details, see http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk for details of upcoming performances, score samples, free arrangements, and more recordings.

Videos, many with scores, at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx7ao4fKMuVXVz0la0r0VrQ/

Monster - Chris Hutchings: City of Oxford Choir and Duncan Aspden

hutchingsmusic

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