Catalogue of Compositions
Phillip’s music is strongly influenced by his native Lake District and by history. His main musical influences are found in continuing and reconciling a pastoral British tradition.
Agnus Dei (2023)
My setting of the Agnus Dei is in a simple tripartite form, with softer modal writing balanced against more strident homophonic material. This balancing is accentuated by two different harmonic spheres which are in a benign conflict, with one ultimately prevailing over the other. Throughout, the organ acts as both onlooker and participant, providing the necessary detachment to create a meaningful setting of these heartfelt words.
Christus Resurgens (2023)
Christus Resurgens is a dramatic and gestural setting of this short Easter text. The work is in a simple rondo form with the declamatory outbursts of ‘Christus’ interspersed with more introspective matieral. The work is dedicated to Christopher Batchelor in admiration for all his support for my music at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
Ubi Caritas (2022)
Ubi Caritas is a simple setting of these well-known and much loved words. My work is warm and direct with a wistful melody filtered through the whole choir in its short duration. The work is dedicated to my in-laws on their seventieth birthdays and was written for Benedict Preece and Caritas Chamber Choir who have supported my work with such dedication in 2022.
Canticum Mariae Virginis (2021)
Canticum Mariae Virginis juxtaposes two texts, both regarding the Virgin Mary, but offering different yet complementary accounts of the Blessed Virgin. As well as pairing these texts, the piece also uses two different languages and two points of view in its six-minute duration.
Four Marian Antiphons (2020)
The Four Marian Antiphons are simple and sustained settings of the well-known Marian texts. They carry on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs, though still retaining the thumbprints of my mature style. The motets are in clear forms, with simple textures and flowing melodies.
Regina Coeli (2020)
Regina Coeli is a simple and sustained setting of the well-known Marian Antiphon. It carries on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs.
Alma Redemptoris Mater (2020)
Alma Redemptoris Mater is a simple and sustained setting of the well-known Marian Antiphon. It carries on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs.
Gloria (2020)
My setting of the Gloria was written during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and what I imagined might initially be an introspective and melancholy work actually turned out to be one of my most ebullient and colourful pieces, spurred on by this unusual and percussive collection of instruments.
Salve Regina (2019)
Salve Regina is a simple and sustained setting of the well-known Marian Antiphon. It carries on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs.
Ave Regina Caelorum (2019)
Ave Regina Caelorum is a simple setting of the well-known Marian Antiphon. It carries on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs
To the End of the Age (2019)
To the End of the Age is a simple setting of this short section from the Book of Matthew relating to the Baptism of Christ. It carries on a current desire to write shorter, easier motets that are more accessible to a wider range of choirs, though still retaining the thumbprints of my mature style.
Magnificat (2018)
My setting of the Magnificat is the fifth time I have set this text, but the first time in Latin and without an organ – it is an entirely different beast from the previous four.
Ave Maria, mater Dei (2017)
Ave Maria, mater Dei is a setting of the text set so imaginatively by William Cornysh in the Eton Choirbook. My work takes the text and uses it in a rhapsodic fashion with two off-stage sopranos augmenting the main choir.
Nunc Dimittis (2017, rev. 2023)
This work has been first performed Exeter University Chapel Choir and has since been programmed all across the world. It is dedicated to Paweł Łukaszewski.