Two Human Hymns

The music for the choir is mostly composedin simple songlike shapes, which are little hymns. The texts, though clearly relate to Christian beliefs, could be more widely applicable to all human experience, which is why they have called them 'Human Hymns'.

Thus, Love BadeMe Welcome (G.Herbert), whilst obviously a Christian allegory, can be read as a gently hypnotic love song, and it is attempted to capture something of this atmosphere in the setting. Like to the Falling of a Star (H.King),although it mentions no God, could be a Calvinist sermon, capping its lovely account of the wonders of nature with an almost operatically sinister denouement. In the first half of the piece, the music bubbles upwards, fresh andoptimistic; in the second half, like all those doomed sinners, it is going down, down, down.

The first performance was given by University of Aberdeen Chapel Choir, on 22nd October 1995. Duration: c.7 minutes.