Opera based on Ulinka Rublack's 'The Astronomer and the Witch', performed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in November 2017.

KEPLER'S TRIAL

Four motets for Gesualdo Six vocal ensemble, setting texts by Johannes Kepler, Novalis, Hölderlin and Nicolai.
Commissioned by the University of Tübingen, 2019.

Kepler-Motetten

Inspired by the echoes of Venice in Cambridge's Bridge of Sighs in ST John's College. Material from a Monteverdi madrigal refracted in watery dialogue of cello and strings. Laura Van Der Heijden (cello), European Union Chamber Orchestra.

Bridge Of Sighs

A setting of a poem by R S Thomas commissioned by the choir of St John's College, Cambridge and conducted by Andrew Nethsingha with Edward Picton-Turbervill (organ)and Benjamin Glassberg (timpani)

ECHOES

Bethlehem-Star-I.Moonless Darkness

Bethlehem-Star-II.Christmas Day

ETHELDREDA'S SONG (I)

Ballet score for Southbank Sinfonia and dancers from the Central School of Ballet. Recording of the premiere on 18 June 2015 (complete with the occasional clatter of dancing feet!).

The Prime Of Life

Advent anthem for St John's College, Cambridge.

The Birth Of Speech

Kepler’s literary creation in The Dream, the Daemon of Levania, reads Kepler’s fictional account of a healer mother, gifted with the power of flight.

Kepler-s Trial-Prologue

Scene 1: The  Ducal Governor’s House in Leonberg
Townsfolk drink in the ducal governor’s house as a madrigal celebrates ‘good Rhenish wine’. Their jollity is disrupted when Ursula Reinbold drunkenly approaches Ducal Governor Einhorn to accuse her neighbour, Katharina Kepler, of being a witch. After Ursula tries to back up her claim with the tale of Katharina’s son, Heinrich, who was the first to call her a witch, the Governor resolves to ‘thoroughly investigate’. Night falls and further rumours spread as the community sings a chorale.

Kepler's Trial-Scene - 1

Scene 2: Katharina Alone
Katharina sings a rhyme that depicts the seven ages of womankind, ending with the line, ‘At seventy, barren and grown cold.’ News of Ursula’s accusation has left her shivering with fear as she contemplates what the future may hold. She sings a prayer, calling on God to ‘come riding’ to her aid.

Kepler's-Trial-Scene - 2

First Interlude: The Arrest
Katharina is arrested, formally charged and committed for trial.

Kepler's Trial-Interlude - 1

Scene 3: Witnesses for the Prosecution
The trial is underway. The village schoolmaster hobbles to the stand to accuse Katharina of making him lame with her herbal potions. Next, the court hears evidence from Dorothea Klebl, the marksman’s wife, who reports what she heard some years ago from a seamstress who used to sew for Frau Kepler. Katharina supposedly once woke the girl at midnight and tried to tempt her to become a witch, responding to her qualms with a cynical dismissal of religion. The chorus demand that these ‘heresies must be condemned’.

Kepler's Trial-Scene - 3

4. Musica caelestis (Kepler-Motetten)

3. Der Tag (Kepler-Motetten)

2. Die Nacht (Kepler-Motetten)

1. Zu dir kehr ich zurueck (Kepler-Motetten)

Song cycle setting poems by Ivor Gurney
Cerys Purser (mezzo-soprano), Tim Watts (piano)

EM - What's In Time

Candlemas anthem setting the Latin antiphon and words by William Wordsworth
St John's Voices, Julia Hwang (violin)/Graham Walker

Tim Watts Composer

Pinned to spotlight

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