My first Choral peice is now available. I am not religious, more of an agnostic, but I do look to the Bible to give me certain ideas.

The Psalms are meant to be songs, and they are very lyrical and full of tantalizing words that a choral writer can have fun with. Psalm 99 for example has ‘Vengeance’ ‘terrible’ ‘exalt’ great words, but to me English is a little too common, probably because I use it every day. My first instinct was to go for a Germanic language to emphasise the darker words, but the word ‘Exalt’ needs to be A) noticeable, it’s the best word in there to play with, and B) nice sounding. I decided on Spanish because I find French, Italian and Latin a little overdone. And it gives us really nice sounds in the best words, such as ‘Vengabas’ ‘Respondias’ ‘Venerable’ ‘Exaltad’ all words I have tried to emphasise by giving them some oddish chords. I believe that odd chords are the way forward. They make me prick my ears up and say, hey, that’s new and interesting. (Hint: Listen to ‘Hope Faith Life Love’ by Eric Whitacre or ‘Scenes In America Deserta’ by the kings singers if you don’t understand what I mean by odd chords)

I have desperately wanted to write for choir, it, by far, is the most expressive instrumentation one can get. Now, I feel I have managed it. I may set a few other passages from the bible. There is one particular verse I’ve wanted to set for ages. I may also look for some poetry in some underchoired language e.g. Japanese, Swedish, Polish, Finnish or Greek. I believe each language should have it’s time in the sun :D