Autumn Music 2025

This Concert which is part of the Sound Festival is promoted by Friends of Forgue Church.

The Spell of the Rose is the sixth setting of songs that I have composed. Although this is not a song cycle – it is a setting of only one poem – various musical motifs recur throughout as might be expected from an extended work. To match the density and scale of the poem, the work lasts just under a quarter of an hour.

A Song of Hope sets verses from Psalms 33, 96 and 97 for Soprano, Cello and Organ manuals. The music is based on a 6-note theme on the notes A D A G A B. This is a musical cryptogram of the word ADONAI, which is a transliteration of one of the Hebrew names for God. This theme is continually transformed throughout the work, particularly in the cello part. The only exception is at the beginning of the fourth movement where the theme is inverted and played backwards resulting in angular melodic lines.