"The Land Of Silence" was commissioned by and is dedicated to Kimberley Lynch & Adrian Foster, who gave the work its first performance on 30 May 2021 in a concert broadcast from the majestic church of Saints-Anges Gardiens de Lachine in Montréal, Canada. 

The work is a setting for amplified soprano, live electronics & organ of the 1896 poem 'Beata Solitudo' by Ernest Dowson (1867 - 1900).

Beata Solitudo

What land of Silence,
   Where pale stars shine
On apple-blossom
   And dew-drenched vine,
   Is yours and mine?

The silent valley
   That we will find,
Where all the voices
   Of humankind
   Are left behind.

There all forgetting,
   Forgotten quite,
We will repose us,
   With our delight
   Hid out of sight.

The world forsaken,
   And out of mind
Honour and labour,
   We shall not find
   The stars unkind.

And men shall travail,
   And laugh and weep;
But we have vistas
   Of gods asleep,
   With dreams as deep.

A land of Silence,
   Where pale stars shine
On apple-blossoms
   And dew-drenched vine,
   Be yours and mine!

THE LAND OF SILENCE(2021)

New setting. Score available via MusicaNeo.com and Sheet Music Plus.

July 2021

O Magnum Mysterium

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 Requiem for our times - Secular, but inclusive

Secular Requiem

My Requiem setting in 9 Movements for SATB Choir, Tenor and Soprano soloists. Organ accompaniment with 1 Tubular Bell and 2 Timps drums.
The libretto uses sections of the standard Latin Requiem Mass interspersed with my settings/arrangement of English funeral hymns; there is also the option of a little congregational participation in singing a short hymn refrain plus 2 verses of Abide With Me.
1. Introitus and Kyrie Eleison
2. Now Thy Earthly Work Be Done
3. Pie Jesu & Agnus Dei
4. For Souls Departed
5. Libera Me
6. Lux Aeterna
7. Lighten Our Darkness
8. In Paradisum & Abide with Me
9. Requiem Aeternam

Requiem Towards the Light - in 9 movements

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

Grace

Sarah Anderson and Kurt Knecht performing Kurt's setting of a passage from the Song of Solomon at a Christian/Sufi dialogue concert.

I am my beloved's, and he is mine.
Arise my love. Arise my beauty and come to me.
I am my beloved's and he is mine.
Look! Winter has passed. The rain is gone.
I am my beloved's.
Flowers appear in our land.
The time for pruning has come.
The voice of the turtle dove is heard.
The fig tree ripens its figs.
The grapevine blossoms and offers its fragrance.
Arise my love. Arise my beauty and come to me.
My dove in the rock, in the stone crevice.
Show me your face.
Let me hear your voice.
For your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Catch the foxes, the little foxes who spoil the vineyard,
for our vineyard is in blossom.
My love is mine, and I am his 
who feeds among the lilies.

I Am My Beloved's

Performed by Huw Morgan at All Saints Church, Clifton, Bristol, UK on 11 March, 2023.

Of the two Tesseraes for organ, Frederick Frahm writes,

“This music struggles for breath when there is plenty of room to breathe. The sections are striking (if not adverse) in their variety, yet they find themselves gathered together.  A final passage attempts resolution but leaves many questions unanswered. Metaphoric and contradictory, yes, anxiety, heartache, grief, all present…

Yet there is hope knowing that disparate things can be gathered in a frame of negative space and by their assembly have meaning.”

Get the score by instant download at Firehead Organ Works:
https://fireheadorganworks.com/product/tesserae-ii/

Frederick Frahm : Tesserae 2

The Bee Carol
Music by Jack Hurst
Text by Carol Ann Duffy
performed by the First Readings Project
Anna Brudzinski, soloist
conducted by J. David Moore

Jack Hurst – The Bee Carol

My original compositions are my copyright. Scores available on request by messaging me here, or available on Sheet Music Plus or Musica Neo (some items free) websites. Liturgical works (x2) are published by Paraclete Press.

Requiem Towards the Light - in 9 movements

Margaret Simmonds

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