Hodie Christus Natus Est is a homage to that particularly ‘rustic’ element in early medieval church music, where elements of the pre-Christian and Christian rites seemed to coexist in a beguiling symbiosis. The work aims to blend a folksy, communal dance element with more traditional choral writing. It is a light-hearted piece, and the score could be used as a blueprint to a more extreme version of what is composed where the ‘pagan’ aspects of the work could be exaggerated to great effect.

Twelfth Night is a simple setting of Laurie Lee’s much-loved poem of the same title in which the poet vividly depicts a winter scene to emphasise the coming of the Wise Men.

My setting of Verbum caro factum est takes the atmosphere and sense of anticipation in the Midnight Mass as the basis for a slow, reverential meditation on these profound words.

I had long been attracted to these words, maybe due to them dealing with the mystery and majesty of the birth of Christ, rather then the more run-of-the-mill fayre found at Christmastime.