'Timepieces: Three Auden Lyrics' is a setting of three poems by W.H. Auden for mixed choir and alto saxophone. It was commissioned by Sam Laughton and the Elysian Singers of London with the aid of a grant from the PRS for Music Foundation, and first performed by the Elysian Singers and saxophonist Kenji Fenton, conducted by Sam Laughton, on Tuesday 1 March 2011 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, London. The three poems I have set are (1) Domesday Song (2) Our bias (3) Funeral Blues.


Timepieces for mixed choir and alto saxophone

'The wailing wind brings stories long whispered, but seldom heard. The banshee's cry, a lost love, a tale to chill the blood. A teenage boy learns family secrets that forge links between the past and present.'

In A Wailing on the Wind, Liz Weir's words are intertwined with my music. The Mavron Quartet, who commissioned the piece, first came together with Liz and I in July 2012, spending a fascinating day being terrified out of our wits by Liz's excellently creepy ghost stories. Liz and I met again in January 2013 for a session in which she polished the script, and I worked out exactly how many seconds of music was needed for each section, what character it should have, whether it should be foreground or background, and so on. I wrote the bulk of the piece in February 2013.

The music itself works somewhat on a leitmotif basis - the technique developed in 19th-century opera where a particular musical theme relates to a particular character. Central to the whole piece is a three-note rising pattern which is first heard in the instrumental introduction, which in musical terms is B-C-G. The only direct quotation in the piece is a few notes from the 'Dies Irae' (Day of Wrath) plainchant from the Requiem Mass, which I couldn't resist incorporating at a moment of particularly ghoulish terror. The other tunes - whether it's what seems to be an Irish ballad or reel, or an American 1940s Big Band number - are my own work, though they draw unashamedly on the musical language of the times and places they are designed to evoke.

The first performance was on 23 April 2013 at St David's Hall in Cardiff.

A Wailing on the Wind and other stories

A Wailing on the Wind for storyteller and string quartet

"A Song for the Season of Creation" was commissioned for St Bride's Choir in recognition of their #PlasticLessLent campaign and premiered on Sunday 26th May 2019. Scores of various arrangements available for FREE at www.stbrides.com/creation

Composer Ian Stephens set the poem "Everything holds together" by Malcolm Guite. The anthem is available in a number of arrangements suitable for choirs and singing groups of all ranges and sizes.

It is hoped that "A Song for the Season of Creation" will be performed in churches throughout the land, either as part of Season of Creation services or Harvest Festivals.

The anthem is a song of praise for God's Creation and a timely reminder of our duty of stewardship to protect & enhance the environment in which we live.

Everything Holds Together
=====================
Everything holds together, everything,
From stars that pierce the dark like living sparks,
To secret seeds that open every spring,
From spanning galaxies to spinning quarks,
Everything holds together and coheres,
Unfolding from the center whence it came.
And now that hidden heart of things appears,
The first-born of creation takes a name.

And shall I see the one through whom I am?
Shall I behold the one for whom I’m made,
The light in light, the flame within the flame,
Eikon tou theou, image of my God?
He comes, a little child, to bless my sight,
That I might come to him for life and light.

by Malcolm Guite

A Song For The Season Of Creation

Everything Holds Together - A Song For The Season Of Creation

Composer of concert music, which was recently described as "so beautiful, so complicated". It isn't really that complicated, but I'll take the beautiful.

Timepieces for mixed choir and alto saxophone

Ian Stephens

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