Written for The Choir of Royal Holloway

This work was commissioned by Presteigne Festival, with kind support from Tŷ Cerdd, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and National Lottery.

programme note --

Nestled in the age of Shakespeare and Milton is the literary stalwart George Herbert, poet, clergyman, and oft forgotten as Welsh-born (born in Montgomery in 1593). The vivid poetry of Herbert has been something I have come back to as composer over the years, not least because of the sheer amount of existing settings I have sung in the past - Vaughan Williams, Britten, Rubbra, Weir, to name a few. Building on a previous setting of Herbert's Love (commonly known as 'Love bade me welcome'), written in 2018 on the occasion of the marriage of dear friends, Cathy and Andrew Martin, it has been a special moment for me to return to vivid lyricism within Herbert.

Recording Performer(s): Choir of Royal Holloway; Rupert Gough (cond.)

Full of sweet days

for Rob Burton and Britten SInfonia.

These 'songs' for soprano saxophone and string ensemble gives voice to the queer love story - be it one of passion, absurdity, repentance, or sorrow. Each short movement takes its name from a poem written by a queer poet from history, illustrating the often hidden and secret love of queer people. The one exception being that of 7th-century, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, where we have no idea whether he was queer but the fluidity and universality in his haiku has always spoken to me. Although initially set out as being a ‘concerto’ for saxophone, this work has developed into a series of snapshots into the intimacy and crystalline effervescence of the soprano saxophone.

For more information about this work, please visit this webpage: https://nathanjamesdearden.com/love-songs-for-the-broken

Recording Performer(s): Robert Burton (soprano saxophone); Britten Sinfonia; William Cole (cond.)
Mixing & Sound Engineering by Thomas Baynes / Chalkstream Productions

love songs for the broken (selection)

Like much of my music (and like many composers), I looked to the past for Three Motets. The motet began in the early 13th century as an application of a new text (French mot: “word”) to existing or old music. Often the text was added to the wordless upper-voice parts of descant 'clausulae'. These were short sections of organum, above which were added one, two, or three simultaneous melodies; in descant 'clausulae', as opposed to other organum, all the voice parts were set in short, repeated rhythmic patterns called rhythmic modes.

Three Motets are reflections on these ‘words’, both old and new. Words that honour scared spaces, celebrate a coming together of people, and the restoration of peace.

This work was commissioned by the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.

-njd.

Three Motets

Recorded by The Choir of Royal Holloway and Rupert Gough (cond.) at Founder's Chapel, Royal Holloway University of London in March 2021. 

TEXT
"Te lucis ante terminum, [...]

Procul recedant somnia,
et noctium phantasmata:

[ ... ] rerum Creator, poscimus, [ ...]

hostemque nostrum comprime,
ne polluantur corpora.

[ ... ] ut solita clementia, [ ... ]

Praesta, Pater omnipotens,
per Iesum Christum Dominum,

[ ... ] sis praesul ad custodiam. [ ... ]

qui tecum in perpetuum
regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.

Amen."

Te lucis ante terminum

Commissioned by Choir & Organ in partnership with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, for their New Music Series (May/June edition 2021.

Recorded by Rupert Gough (organ) at the Chapel of Royal Holloway University of London on 11 April 2021. 

programme note--
after BWV 60, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder)

Although I, or anyone else for that matter, would not have anticipated experiencing what we have done in recent times, it has been a sobering reminder of how much music is a balm. Over recent months I have been returning to music that ‘takes me somewhere’. Music that sits with me. Music that enables me to tap into forgotten memories. Music that I have played as a child. Music that I had learned as a teenager. Reliving those long hours, nestled away in a practice room at school, listening to Glenn Gould recordings. Reliving that sense of safety, of blissful otherness.

storms don’t last foreveris a response to (or even a reimagination) of J. S. Bach’s chorale setting of “O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort [‘O eternity, you word of thunder’]" (BWV 20, although also adapted for a choral cantata BWV 60), a chorale apt to our current times as we grapple with both loss and perpetual hope. A work for organ of two-halves, there is both a distillation of the original melody by Johann Schop and Bach’s harmonisation, a distant thunder, which dissipates into the chinks of light and hope seen in Johann Rist’s hymn:

O eternity, you word of thunder,
o sword, that bores through the soul,
o beginning without end!
O eternity, timeless time,
I know not, before such great sorrow,
where to turn.
My heart, completely terrified, trembles,
so that my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth.

[…]

Take me, when it pleases You,
Lord Jesus, into Your fortress of joy!
- njd.

storms don't last forever

Written for The Choir of Royal Holloway

This work was commissioned by Presteigne Festival, with kind support from Tŷ Cerdd, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and National Lottery.

programme note --

Nestled in the age of Shakespeare and Milton is the literary stalwart George Herbert, poet, clergyman, and oft forgotten as Welsh-born (born in Montgomery in 1593). The vivid poetry of Herbert has been something I have come back to as composer over the years, not least because of the sheer amount of existing settings I have sung in the past - Vaughan Williams, Britten, Rubbra, Weir, to name a few. Building on a previous setting of Herbert's Love (commonly known as 'Love bade me welcome'), written in 2018 on the occasion of the marriage of dear friends, Cathy and Andrew Martin, it has been a special moment for me to return to vivid lyricism within Herbert.

iii. Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing

i. full of sweet days

commissioned by Paul Layzell for the Choir of Royal Holloway

first performance: Choir of Royal Holloway and Rupert Gough on 26 January 2022 at the Chapel of Royal Holloway University of London, as part of a live BBC Choral Evensong broadcast

This is a live service recording from February 2022 at the Chapel of Royal Holloway University of London.

First Service: Nunc Dimittis

First Service: Magnificat

Written for Britten Sinfonia, as part of the Magnum Opus programme

First performance: Britten Sinfonia on 24 April 2022 at Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, as part of the 'мир / Peace' tour

Programme note: After Christopher Soto’s ‘I’ve Been Yearning for a Riot’

I’m dashing to freedom // My cheetah crop-top // Turns me into a cheetah. I’m dashing to freedom // My cheetah crop-top // Turns me into a cheetah.

My legs are pixelated in quick motion // Catch me If  you can!

-njd.

pixelated in quick motion (excerpt)

for Rob Burton and Britten SInfonia.

These 'songs' for soprano saxophone and string ensemble gives voice to the queer love story - be it one of passion, absurdity, repentance, or sorrow. Each short movement takes its name from a poem written by a queer poet from history, illustrating the often hidden and secret love of queer people. The one exception being that of 7th-century, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, where we have no idea whether he was queer but the fluidity and universality in his haiku has always spoken to me. Although initially set out as being a ‘concerto’ for saxophone, this work has developed into a series of snapshots into the intimacy and crystalline effervescence of the soprano saxophone.

For more information about this work, please visit this webpage: https://nathanjamesdearden.com/love-songs-for-the-broken

Mixing & Sound Engineering by Thomas Baynes / Chalkstream Productions

vi. Wild Nights!

v. Locking Me To You

iv. Feet! Feet!

ii. i will not comb my hair

nova! nova! is a choral setting of the Salutation Carol of the Angel Gabriel, based on Luke 1:26-38, and is sung for the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This work was specially written for the Choir of Royal Holloway for performance in their 2022 Lessons & Carols service at Royal Holloway.

nova! nova!

for Rupert

Like much of my music (and like many composers), I looked to the past for Three Motets. The motet began in the early 13th century as an application of a new text (French mot: “word”) to existing or old music. Often the text was added to the wordless upper-voice parts of descant 'clausulae'. These were short sections of organum, above which were added one, two, or three simultaneous melodies; in descant 'clausulae', as opposed to other organum, all the voice parts were set in short, repeated rhythmic patterns called rhythmic modes.

Three Motets are reflections on these ‘words’, both old and new. Words that honour scared spaces, celebrate a coming together of people, and the restoration of peace.

This work was commissioned by the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.

-njd.

Virga Jesse floruit

Ecce sacerdos magnus

Locus iste

for David Geoffrey Thomas

First performance: performed by Cantores Landavenses under the direction of David Geoffrey Thomas at Llandaff Cathedral (South Wales) on 20th October 2013

Work revisited for performance at Guilford Cathedral (Surrey) under the direction of Peter Lewin Wagstaff on 9th August 2014

Recorded at Llandaff Cathedral (South Wales)by Majestas Chamber Choir under the direction of Nathan James Dearden in February 2015. For more information about the Majestas Chamber Choir and their album, 'Were you there?', please visit www.facebook.com/MajestasChamberChoir


"Te lucis ante terminum, [...]

Procul recedant somnia,
et noctium phantasmata:

[ ... ] rerum Creator, poscimus, [ ...]

hostemque nostrum comprime,
ne polluantur corpora.

[ ... ] ut solita clementia, [ ... ]

Praesta, Pater omnipotens,
per Iesum Christum Dominum,

[ ... ] sis praesul ad custodiam. [ ... ]

qui tecum in perpetuum
regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.

Amen."



te lucis ante terminum

for my grandfather

Selected for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Composition:Wales Project 2015, and recorded by the orchestra under the direction of Jac van Steen in March 2015.


Haven (ˈheɪv(ə)n), sb. [OE. Hæven str. fem. and Hæfne wk. fem; usu taken as f. root either of HAVE v. or HEAVE v., though possibly of ON. Haf, Da. Hav, OE. hæf  sea.] [ … ] 2. fig. A refuge ; an asylum ME.


Constructed and coated in aluminium, Denys Robert Short’s sculpture Hafan (translated from Welsh as ‘Haven’ or ‘Home’), embodies the doorway of a typical valleys terraced house in Wales. The artist, Denys Short, described Hafan as: ‘… a sort of reward for all the people of the valleys who kept their terrace houses smart in spite of all the dirt, grime and disease that came from getting coal. A pearly gate special for colliers and their wives.’ Using this ‘gateway’ as a means for inspiration, this work for large orchestra explores each space that doorway alludes to; the inside and out.



For further details, please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcnow





















hafan (diptych for orchestra): mvt. i (excerpt i)

This is a premiere performance recording given by the Founder's Choir of Royal Holloway on 25 June 2025 at St. John’s Church, Riga, Latvia

For full information about this work, please visit this website: https://nathanjamesdearden.com/my-spirit-sang-all-day

My spirit sang all day

For full information about this work, please visit this webpage: https://nathanjamesdearden.com/my-spirit-sang-all-day

for Genesis Sixteen

First performance: 5th July, 2015 at Cheltenham International Music Festival; Genesis Sixteen; Eamonn Dougan (cond.)



…on a theme of Sanctus and Benedictus.



TEXT

after the Isaiah 6:3, Matthew 21:9 and Book of Common Prayer (1549)
(ed. Nathan J Dearden)



[kaddosh, kaddosh, kaddosh]

“and one cried unto another, and said…”

holy, holy, holy, Lorde God of Hostes:
heaven (+ earth) are full of thy glory:

“and the multitudes that went before, cried…”

hosanna, in the highest.

Blessed is he that come in the name of the Lorde:
Glory to thee, O Lorde in the highest.



and one cried... (excerpt)

for CHROMA

First Performance: Friday 18th March, 2016 at Picture Gallery, Royal Holloway University of London
Stuart King (clarinet), Helen Storey (bassoon), Richard Bayliss (horn), Daniel Pioro (violin), Charlotte Bonneton (violin), David Aspin (viola), Zoë Martlew (cello), Elena Hull (double bass), Mark Bowden (conductor)

FOREWORD

chorus and drones for eight instruments

'WINTER TRAVELS'
who’s typing on the void
too many stories
they’re twelve stones
hitting the clockface
twelve swans
flying out of winter

tongues in the night
describe gleams of light
blind bells
cry out for someone absent

entering the room
you see that jester’s
entered winter
leaving behind flame

Bei Dao
Translated by David Hinton with Yanbing Chen 


blind bells, cry out (excerpt)

First Performance: 26th August 2016 at Dartington Hall, Dartington International Summer School & Festival

“… the stillness brings such piece
day warm, no wind, soft… heavenly

every tree can make it’s appropriate gesture to us
nature needs from us a spring of suggestion
and ideas that will never dry up

ecstasy swept over me as I heard
my first blackbird singing.”

Extracts from Dorothy Elmhirst’s Garden Diaries

Dorothy Elmhirst (1887-1968) was an American-born social activist and philanthropist whom alongside her husband, Leonard Knight Elmhirst, renovated Dartington Hall and its gardens between 1925 up until her death in 1968, founded the Dartington Hall Trust, the Dartington Hall School, the Dartington College of Arts and the Dartington International Summer School.

ecstasy swept over me (excerpt)

For Judith Weir

First Performance: Friday 26th August, 2016 at Dartington Hall, Dartington International Summer School & Festival

As Hildegard of Bingen became more celebrated throughout Europe, she successfully persuaded the Catholic Church to allow her to form her own her own monastery in 1165. Rather than being a place of confinement, it became her seat of power as she developed a unique female voice. Through her writing she presented a radical, alternative view of the medieval, including that of the female body that was liberated from dominant notions of sexuality. A poet, musician, scientist and a nun of the Benedictine Order, Hildegard was a true maverick, however devout, of her time.

This work for violin and viola exploits Hildegard’s maverick nature by marrying her responsorial ‘O vis aeternitatis’ with a ’jig’ dance constantly battling with 3-time, a musical construct that would have been considered rather worldly and exclusively for pagan ritual.

Hildegard's Jig (excerpt)

for Grand Band

First Performance: performed by Grand Band on Monday 22nd May, 2017 at St. David’s Hall (Cardiff), as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival Peter Reynolds Composer Studio 

FOREWORD

anthem. n. ˈænθəm; anˈt həm. 1 An uplifting song associated with a group or a cause, especially one chosen by a country to express patriotic feelings. 2 a musical setting of a religious text to be sung by a choir during a church service. Derivative adj. anthemic Origin Latin, antiphona. Old English, antemne

								This is not an uplifting song. 
This is an anthem that explores the state of the nation.

national anthem [no. i]

written for the Berkeley Ensemble, as part of Tŷ Cerdd's CoDI Chamber Residency

Permission to use the recording - 'Peth mawr ydi cariad' - has been kindly granted by National Museum Wales /Amgeuddfa Cymru. Collection details are as follows: SFNHM Tape 171. Collected 30.04.1959 from Miss M. M. Williams (teacher, b. 1894), Idanfryn, Brynsiencyn, Anglesey

First Performance -- Berkeley Ensemble on 10 April 2019 at University Concert Hall, Cardiff University (UK)

Programme Note --

I started this project from a very pure place, just using the voice of Miss M. M. Williams (recorded 1959 in Idanfryn, Anglesey) singing of love and loss. And little by little I go from her world to my world, which is much more cacophonous and has a more urban sensibility. 

There is a very personal connection for me at play here. I have always performed and connected with the traditional music of Wales. The tales. The myth. Stories of families. The joy. The heartache. Fascinated with the nostalgia. How can we reconnect with this music and the messages within in a world of such change? What would happen if the ancient forms of our music are lost in translation and buried?

-njd

under the earth

o dan y ddaear (excerpt)

This work was developed for Swansea Philharmonic Choir as part of the Adopt-a-Composer scheme, funded by the PRS Foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust, and run by Making Music UK, in partnership with Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3.

first performance: Swansea Philharmonic Choir; Jonathan Rogers (cond.) at The Brangwyn, Swansea (UK) on 8 December 2019

i.  home...

Written for the 50th Anniversary of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music
US Premiere: Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone) and Paula Fan (piano) on 22 January 2019 at the Arizona Senior Academy (US)

UK Premiere: Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone) and Paula Fan (piano) on 3 March 2019 at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff (UK)

Ym Mhontypridd Mae 'mwriad

Ffarwel Fo I Langyfelach Lon

Cân Y Cathreinwr

for my mother

This work was written as part of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain Young Composers Scheme 2019-20.

Kindly supported by NMC Recordings (Programme Digital Partners), Steinberg Media Technologies (Technology Partner), Stainer & Bell (Publishing Partner), The Garrick Charitable Trust, RVW Trust, The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation, Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust and PRS Foundation's Open Fund for Organisations.

first performance --

National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain on 1 November 2020 at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape (UK)

text --
Robert Bryan (1858 - 1920)

Suo Gân
Huna blentyn ar fy mynwes, 
Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon; 
Breichiau mam sy'n dynn amdanat, 
Cariad mam sy dan fy mron; 
Ni chaiff dim amharu'th gyntun, 
Ni wna undyn â thi gam; 
Huna'n dawel, annwyl blentyn, 
Huna'n fwyn ar fron dy fam.  

Huna'n dawel, heno, huna, 
Huna'n fwyn, y tlws ei lun; 
Gwenu'n dirion yn dy hun?  
Ai angylion fry sy'n gwenu, 
Arnat ti yn gwenu'n llon, 
Tithau'n gwenu'n ôl dan huno, 
Huno'n dawel ar fy mron?  

Paid ag ofni, dim ond deilen 
Gura, gura ar y ddôr; 
Paid ag ofni, ton fach unig 
Sua, sua ar lan y môr; 
Huna blentyn, nid oes yma 
Ddim i roddi iti fraw; 
Gwena'n dawel yn fy mynwes. 
Ar yr engyl gwynion draw.

Nathan James Dearden is an award-winning Welsh music creator, whose work has been described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Media Wales), and performed and featured by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tippett Quartet, National Youth Orchestra of Wales, tenor Nicky Spence, National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Fidelio Trio, and Hebrides Ensemble. His music regularly features in concerts across the UK and overseas, including at the Cheltenham Music Festival, Dartington International Festival, CROSSROADS International New Music Festival and Vale of Glamorgan Festival. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Resonance FM, RTÉ lyric FM, S4C and Soho Radio, whilst also released on NMC Recordings and Delphian.

Nathan is also a sought-after conductor, arts advisor, event curator and educator, holding arts advisory roles with several international organisations, and is currently Lecturer in Music Composition at Royal Holloway University of London.

nathan james dearden

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks