the first of my fairy tales, here scored for viola, trombone and celesta

my favourite of a few German poems, particularly Hölderlin as here

Tri Lilii is based on the Apollinaire poem "Le Suicide" used in Shostakovich's 14th symphony and indeed there is some resemblance in the way both pieces start. This quite short work is probably the most chromatic of my choral pieces and has a rather tragic, brooding atmosphere.

among my favourite of fairy tales, this one is scored for clarinet, bassoon, tubular bells, celesta, violin and cello.

this short piece is the only fairytale to date -- here Grimm lives up to his name -- with a purely instrumental setting. It doesn't end well for the creatures involved.....

My setting of the Eichendorff poem which concludes the famous Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder for chamber strings and choir

Carmina Rubana is the life and times of our dog, Ruby, set to words by my wife Franzi. It just so happens that I was singing a famous work by Carl Orff at the time...

a more extensive fairytale setting than my earliest efforts and with the more choral treatment of for instance Rapunzel being increasingly replaced with straightforward direct setting of the text..

Grimm's tale "The story of the Youth who went forth to discover what Fear was" is one of the more absurd ones and my wife wanted me to set it. In the end, despite my initial reservations, it was quite fun to do.

Cinderella is a slightly strange tale as the heroine, despite her goodness, seems just as greedy for status as her nasty step-sisters and the love affair is arguably rather one sided! For this rendition, I returned to the "Ancient Instruments" of the Piano Concerto, though with different strings. There is a short break before the Palace scene at 12'49"

The Little Mermaid is my longest work to date and imho the best of the fairy tales where the influence of Janacek is perhaps most apparent. Of course it does no harm that Andersen's tale is both moving and very poetic. Unlike previous efforts, I've divided this into three Acts with various scenes which can help with navigation
Act 1
scene 1: longing to meet humans
scene 2: falls in love with and rescues the prince 4'31"
scene 3: oh for an immortal soul 10'29"

Act 2
scene 1: the ball 21'33"
scene 2: visits the Sea Witch 26'23"

Act 3
scene 1: with the prince in the palace 39'10"
scene 2: the prince must travel 49'58"
scene 3: wedding bells 53'13"
scene 4: the witch has given us a knife 57'44"

three of the four German romantic poet choral settings were done some time ago but I decided to add a more substantial new one and revise the others to make a set.
Hälfte des Lebens : Hölderlin
Inselmittag: Hilde Domin 2'43"
Es könnte viel bedeuten: Ingeborg Bachmann 4'34"
Der Herbst des Einsamen : Georg Trakl 6'55"

a short oddity, this work was written to use the rather unusual alto voices of the Orchestral Tools Salu library plus strings. It's a reflection on the impermanence of life

A few years ago I wrote a setting of Tri Lilii in the Russian translation of the Apollinaire poem used by Shostakovich in his 14th symphony. This has now been revised and two further poems added. At times there is a clear influence of the great Russian although in general the treatment is quite different.

Les Attentives I
Les Attentives II 9'13"
Le Suicidé 11'31"

my first attempt at a sacred choral work. Here the rendering is from the rather interesting Catalonian Cantamus website which, instead of providing a plug-in as with standard virtual instruments, analyses the score online and creates an intimate and surprisingly high quality reproduction of the text.

A work inspired by Rheinberger's 8 part Mass in the same key, though this is only 4 part.
Kyrie
Gloria 2'26"
Credo 7'01"
Sanctus 15'04"
Benedictus 16'33"
Agnus Dei 20'04"

my first larger scale sacred work, setting part of the Requiem Mass. A number of years after writing it, the Recordare Jesu Pie and Libera me were added which includes string interludes and form the heart of the piece.
Requiem
Kyrie 5:08
Dies Irae 7:52
Recordare Jesu Pie 11:22
Libera me 21:37
Lux Aeterna 26:13
In Paradisum 34:38

this is a setting of nos. 2,3 and 5 from the biblical "Song of Songs" (Solomon's Song) for SATB choir and string quartet.
The timing is Song 3 "All night long on my bed" 10:10
Song 5 "I have come into my garden" 16:00

in these troubled times, and after writing a couple of somewhat gloomy works, I wanted to create something positive and affirmative, hence this Te Deum. The initial inspiration came from Braunfels, whose Te Deum is an operatic and wildly passionate piece and this retains his 4 movement structure to the setting of the text, though this setting is much simpler with just an organ accompaniment.

1. Te Deum
2. Iudex crederis 8'48"
3. Aeterna fac 11'57"
4. Dignare Domine 20'23"