Aspidistra Island
In May 1972, for Christian Aid Week, a musical revue based was presented in Bristol, based on parts of the Book of Job. This song was written to accompany a dance expressing an aspect of that man’s brokenness.
Category: Confession
When in the wastes of wild regret
I wrote this to be part of a Lenten sermon for the congregation of St Anne’s Calmore near Southampton. When in the wastes of wild regret.midi
O Love, O Love, O fearless Love
* This hymn-song was composed to be part of a Lenten sermon for St Anne’s Calmore, near Southampton. In verse 2 ‘… people kill the thing they love’ comes from Oscar Wilde: ‘for each man kills the thing he loves’ (Ballad Read More …
Although I do not doubt your grace
* This hymn is offered as a help to enable us to face up to our personal responsibility for the health of the body politic. . Although I do not doubt.midi COMMENTARY It is not always easy to distinguish between those Read More …
O Blessed Fire within
*** An achingly beautiful melody, hauntingly harmonised, to express an attempted response to Jesus’ comment on the seventh Commandment. COMMENTARY This hymn responds to what may be presumed to be one of Christianity’s most deeply felt conversation-killers: You have heard Read More …
From far away I hear you calling me
This hymn was written with a forthcoming Derby Diocesan Mission in mind. It invokes a picture of Zacchaeus making Sacramental Confession to Jesus, who brings ‘salvation to this house today’. Text and music were written during a stay at the Read More …
Confession (Who I am)
This song introduced the climax of Act 2 of Lord George Hell, my musical adaptation for stage of Max Beerbohm’s short story ‘The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired Men’ (1896) for performance in 1976 by members of the Lee Read More …
O God of earth and altar
I first met this hymn, to the great tune KINGS LYNN, as a student, and it moved me to want to serve almost more than any other. For a dramatic presentation in Lent 1974 I intentionally gave Chesterton’s words a Read More …