Commissioned by Lauren Redhead and Alistair Zaldua for their Unmeasured Preludes project, 2021. Performed by the composer as part of the mainly slow organ music series at St Stephen's Church, Bristol, in November 2021.

In May of this year I saw a kestrel whilst on a walk: it rose from the ground in front of me and hovered, suspended, before the bright, white sun on a still day. Time halted, controlled entirely by the bird, which eventually flew away around the shoulder of the hill. The encounter was peaceful and stirring; yet, through some strange reversal of scale, it was also menacing, as if I had become the kestrel’s prey. The title also refers to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ flashing and brilliant The Kestrel Paced Round the Sun, for flute solo (1975).

Kestrel photo by Charles J. Sharp - Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42073094

the kestrel stands haloed before the sun

An exploration of canon and chance for organ solo. Three versions are presented, each following the same underlying pattern, which itself was generated through chance procedures. These versions may be played separately or together in any order.

Performed by Michael Bonaventure. Score available from Firehead Organ Works: https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/prelude-2021/

Prelude (2021) - III

A transcription for organ solo of four carols by the same composer: “Owt of your slepe arise”; “Dormi Jesu”; “That yönge childe”; and “Nowel syng we bothe al and some”.

Performed by Michael Bonaventure.

Score available from Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/carol-sonata/

Carol Sonata (1 - Out Of Your Slepe)

Carol Sonata (2 - Dormi Jesu)

Carol Sonata (3 - That Yonge Childe)

Carol Sonata (4 - Nowel Syng We)

Fourteen fragments for the Stations of the Cross, for organ solo. Recorded at All Saints, Clifton (Bristol)

1 - Jesus is condemned to death
2 - Jesus takes up the cross (1:33)
3 - Jesus falls for the first time (2:32)
4 - Jesus meets his mother (3:50)
5 - Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross (5:41)
6 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (7:02)
7 - Jesus falls for the second time (8:37)
8 - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (9:55)
9 - Jesus falls for the third time (11:13)
10 - Jesus is stripped of his garments (12:42)
11 - Jesus is nailed to the cross (13:27)
12 - Jesus dies on the cross (14:13)
13 - Jesus is taken down from the cross (15:43)
14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb (17:33)

Score available from Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/huw-morgan/

Path Of Sorrow (2022)

A performance of Lauren Redhead's "post praeludium" given by Huw Morgan at New College, Oxford, on 12 May 2022 as part of the Mainly Slow Organ Music series (https://organslow.mystrikingly.com/). 

The score of this work is available from Firehead Organ Works:

https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/post-praeludium/

Lauren Redhead - post praeludium

A prelude of flexible duration in ritornello form.

Score available from Firehead Organ Works: 
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/prelude-2022/

Prelude (2022)

A Marian or Advent meditation for organ solo. 
Score available from Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/grace/

Grace

A setting of a prayer for the office of Compline, sung by the choir of All Saints Fulham, directed by Jonathan Wikeley. The piece can be sung by four voices, one choir, or two or more choirs in canon.

"Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours
of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and
chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

(authorised iPhone recording made at Evensong, 15 January 2023)

in memoriam Catherine Kelsey

Night Prayer (2022)

A meditation on the Marian carol by the 13th century Notre Dame composer Pérotin. 

Score available from Firehead Organ Works: https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/beata-viscera/

Recording made by the composer at All Saints Clifton, Bristol

Beata Viscera (2023)

A meditation for organ solo on an anonymous text (Hail, rose without thorns) as set by Thomas Tallis.

Score available from Firehead Organ Works: https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/ave-rosa-sine-spinis/

Midi realisation.

Ave, Rosa Sine Spinis (2023)

For organ+fixed media electronics. Written for Michael Bonaventure in 2012, revised in 2015, performed here by the composer. Explores high frequencies, deep space, residual sounds.

Remains (2015)

Haven (2014, for organ) is a short meditation based on the plainsong communio for Lent 3, "The Sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest, where she may lay her young."

This performance is by Michael Bonaventure at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Köln (pictured, with installation by Claire Morgan), from a concert in October 2015

score available from Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/haven/

Haven

A setting of the "Alma Redemptoris Mater", sung here by the Merbecke Choir at Southwark Cathedral in February 2016. From "Four Marian Antiphons" (2015/16)

Alma Redemptoris Mater (2016)

Buitenmuur ("Exterior Wall") - Monody for keyboard instrument and fixed electronics (2016)

Recording of the first performance given by Michael Bonaventure at Sonority Cabinet III, Grote Kerk, Oosthuizen, NL on 29.9.16. 

"Buitenmuur" is inspired by the neo-surrealist work of Dutch painter Theo Voorzaat, in particular "Een Daad van Protest" ("An Act of Protest" 1993). Crumbling, fractured landscapes scattered with small, baffled figures are brusquely intruded upon by impossible, glowing orbs and featureless, insurmountable walls, pits and barriers.

Buitenmuur (Exterior Wall - 2016)

A short prelude on the chorale melody "Herzliebster Jesu" by Johann Crüger (2017). Performed by the composer at the Waikato Cathedral Church of St Peter, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Hymn Prelude on "Herzliebster Jesu"

"Aria" for organ solo (2017), composed for the wedding of two good friends.

Aria

For piano solo and electronics. Composed for an Automatronic concert in Cambridge, 2017.

Vor Tau und Tag (before the dew and the dawn), den bl ̊a timen (the blue hour), the swelling hour, the thin place, the hour of creation, amrit vela (the ambrosial time), tussmørke (troll darkness), hazengrauwen (the grey of the hares), vargtimmen (the hour of the wolf).

Hazengrauwen

"Fault" was commissioned by the organ department of Arizona State University for a concert exploring the environmental and ecological impact of the US / Mexico border wall.

Samples of the Arizona desert and the wall itself were provided by Glenn Weyant.

Originally for two organs and electronics, this performance was given by Lauren Redhead (organ) and Alistair Zaldua (violin) at the 2018 Canterbury Festival.

Further reading:
https://fireheadeditions.com/2018/09/fault-new-work-for-organ-electronics/#more-4615

ASU organ department:
https://music.asu.edu/degree-programs/organ?dept=303926&id=1

Glenn Weyant:
https://sonicanta.bandcamp.com

No More Deaths:
http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/en/

Fault (2018)

The second movement of "Cofion Cynnes am Davies" (2009), performed by Michael Bonaventure on the organ of Coventry Cathedral.

Score available by digital download from Firehead Editions:
https://fireheadeditions.com/downloads/cofion-cynnes-am-davies/

Commissioned for the James Davies Festival in St Cadoc’s Church, Llangattock Lingoed and first performed by the composer on Sunday 16 August 2009. "Cofion Cynnes Am Davies" (Fond Remembrance of Davies) is a set of five short character movements depicting various stages of the life of James Davies (1765 – 1849), the “Monmouthshire Schoolmaster”, noted for his lifelong philanthropy and the building of churches and schools from meagre means.

1 – The Boy on the High Stool
2 – The Loom Turns
3 – The Barrow
4 – On This Rock
5 – The Old Man in the Moonlit Cabbage Patch

Contemporary British Organ Music Volume 3

The Loom Turns (Cofion Cynnes am Davies)

A Sarsen stone is a dense, hard block used in the construction of Megalithic monuments in Southern England such as Stonehenge; they were often used whole as they were found in the ground and transported great distances. This work is part invocation, part paean to the effort and vision of the megalithic builders of these ancient monuments.

This performance is from an Automatronic concert in St John's College, Cambridge, October 2018

Sarsen (2013)

Prelude (2019)

A short prelude on the chorale melody "Liebster Jesu" by by Johan Rudolf Ahle (1664). This performance is by Michael Bonaventure on the organ of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 13.2.20

Score available by instant digital download from Firehead Editions:

https://fireheadeditions.com/downloads/hymn-prelude-on-liebster-jesu-wir-sind-hier/

Hymn Prelude on "Liebster Jesu" (2019)

Postlude - Lullaby for Aneira (Suite for piano: 6)

Huw Morgan is a composer, organist and conductor currently living and working in Bristol and South Wales. 

Drawn to the power of ancient, haunted landscapes and their lost inhabitants; fascinated by impermanence, space, and time.

He is a founder member of the collective "Automatronic", which seeks to promote, create and perform new music for organ+electronics. His works for choir and organ are published by Firehead Editions.

A graduate of the University of Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music, he gives regular concerts and his music has appeared at the Southbank Centre, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, York Minster and Canterbury Cathedral, the Bergen International Organ Festival, the Canterbury Festival, on Radio 3 and on numerous recordings.

Huw Morgan

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