Waiting is a simple and warm setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name. The piece is in a clear ABA form with sustained material and prominent solo soprano bookending more arioso and cantabile material. My piece relates directly to the COVID-19 pandemic with obvious references to ‘singing’ and ‘keeping the dark away’ at the heart of the composition.

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.

Fantasia is my longest single-movement organ work to date and forms part of a current preoccupation with transforming or transfiguring previous musical materials into something of a more beautiful or spiritual state. In this case, the Fantasia is a transfiguration of a motet of mine Veni Sancte Spiritus (‘Come Holy Ghost’) that I finished in 2012 but had begun much earlier in c.2004.

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.

Folksongs are simple ‘re-imaginings’ of well-known English folksongs that have long since left their natural surroundings to become cultural artefacts in their own right. Another word for the compositional process might be ‘deconstruction’ as each folksong is reduced to a handful of key features, such as a melodic fragment, a cadence or a rhythmic gesture and pieced together in a different fashion.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When in Our Music is a ‘festival’ anthem for choir, brass, percussion and organ, written to be a celebratory and optimistic offering full of vibrancy and verve.

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

Two Hymn Tune Preludes were written for the Oxford University Press anthology Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists: Holy Communion and are new arrangements of exisiting well-known hymn tunes.

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.

This setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimmitis has been performed all across the world. It was commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music in 2018.