Festival Te Deum (2022)

My second setting of the Te Deum is more expansive than the first (a liturgical setting written in 2010), split into four movements and featuring a prominent solo soprano part. It takes a short self-quotation from an earlier work (Missa Brevis) as the basis for a fifteen-minute modal fantasia where key themes, chords and gestures are woven throughout. The third movement, ‘O Lord, Save Thy People’, was composed first and is intended for potential use outside of the Festival Te Deum. This movement was written in response to the crisis in Ukraine and the helplessness that I, like many felt in the face of such horror. The words of the text: ‘O Lord, save thy people and bless thine heritage. Govern them and lift them up for ever’ seemed apposite in the circumstances, and the plangent opening bass solo, the unresolved material and static harmonies mirrored my feelings toward the conflict. The material from this is then filtered throughout the surrounding movements, colouring even the most triumphant outbursts. Like my previous setting, this is a Te Deum that is both questioning yet reaffirming, present yet distant and majestic yet fragile. It was written for the twentieth anniversary of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music that has been so supportive of my music over the past 12 years and that continues to bring light, beauty and innovation into the church music of today.