Music
I am an amateur musician. I sing (bass-baritone), and play orchestral percussion (mostly timpani), the alto recorder, and keyboard instruments.
I play with the University of Cambridge Concert Band, and MagSoc Chorus and Orchestra.
I used to run the Cambridge University Recorder Ensemble.
I used to direct the Queens’ Graduate Choir in Cambridge, with which I still sing; and also the now-defunct Queens’ Chamber Choir, a small group dedicated to early music. With these two groups I directed a number of major works, some of which have been recorded. You can watch the performances below.
Interests and research
A general early music enthusiast, I am particularly interested in English music of the late Baroque and Regency eras. This period has traditionally been overlooked as a lacuna in musical history, overshadowed by Handel (1685–1759) who came before, the great Victorian composers who came after, and the contemporaneous flourishing of music on the Continent in the Classical and Romantic era. Nonetheless, composers like Thomas Arne (composer of Rule, Britannia!) and William Hayes were instrumental in creating a national musical culture that reached the common people, and it is during this period that many of the hymns of the Anglican canon were written.
I produced the first edition of William Hayes’ Orpheus and Euridice in modern notation, which saw the first modern live performance of the work in Queens’ Chapel in 2022 (see below).
Productions
Compositions and arrangements
Some of my compositions will eventually become available here.
- I am working on England Embellished, a collection of traditional English melodies arranged for various vocal or instrumental ensembles.
- During my time as director of Queens’ Graduate Choir I wrote a number of arrangements of sacred music, which will become a volume Cantica Reginensis.
Vocal works
Because of a perennial lack of tenors, most of my compositions for QGC have been for SAB.
Domine, quis habitabit? An arrangement of Psalm 15 in the Renaissance polyphonic style for SAB trio. (MuseScore)
Drop, drop, slow tears Arrangement of the Orlando Gibbons hymn for SAB. (pdf)
Instrumental works
Variations on Saint Clement Variations for piano quintet (MuseScore)