The second set of Three Partsongs, continues my interest in the music and fashions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that I have explored in many works over the past two decades, the most similar being the first set of partsongs from 2008-12. Like their predecessors, the second set of Three Partsongs are simple settings for SATB unaccompanied choir, taking their influence from the Romantic idea of the partsong as a simple, homophonic, melody dominated piece often taking its inspiration from nature and other Romantic notions.

Lumen in Umbra is a sustained, atmospheric piece taking two lines of text relating to light and darkness and creating a slowly changing tableau that centres around a high-pitched drone from tuned wine glasses. The light in the piece changes from moment to moment, sometimes bright and coruscating, sometimes wan and distant.

The Shadow Calls sets a bleak, but ultimately hopeful poem by American composer-poet Thomas LaVoy which was inspired by Spanish painter Francisco Goya’s The Dog, which the artist painted directly onto the walls of his house during a period of mental and physical distress.

Al is Alles Stil was written for the Dutch choir Cappella Vocale for their 25th anniversary concert in October 2022. On the one hand it is a work of celebration and festivity, however, as the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is also tinged with sadness and nostalgia at all that was lost and could have been.

Coronach is the culmination of four years of incremental work and carries on a current preoccupation with integrating elements of Scottish history and culture into my work. The piece is in seven movements and alternates between settings of Scottish romantic poetry with Gaelic folksongs collected by Hamish Henderson (1919-2002), a renaissance man of mid-twentieth century Scottish poetry and folklore.

As The Mirk Night is a set of four relatively simple arrangements of these beautiful Burns songs for choir. I have tried to keep as close to the originals as possible with the odd change of texture and harmony here and there adding a twenty-first century gloss to the piece. They form part of a wider concern in my work that involves engaging with Scottish culture and history.

Thread About My Heart is the second-largest piece that I have written to date, and certainly the most substantial since my oratorio Noah’s Fire that was premiered in 2015. It is, somewhat remarkably, the first time that I have set the words of any of the Lake Poets, never mind the work of the most illustrious of the group, William Wordsworth.

My new work The Mystery of Light (2019) was performed by the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir at a special graduation service at the University of Aberdeen to honour HRH Princess Anne.

The Three Partsongs are simple settings for unaccompanied choir and are part of an ongoing set, taking their influence from the Romantic idea of the partsong, often taking its inspiration from nature and other Romantic notions.