Requiem for mixed choir, solo and string orchestra. A wonderful performance of this short, lyrical and deeply felt Requiem, with world famous opera star Susan Bullock (the composer's sister) singing soprano solo on CD LakeSound LSP 072. The seven movements blend traditional Latin with modern texts.
01. Requiem Aeternam 4:47
02. Psalm 121 1:58
03. Death Is Nothing At All 4:47
04. Nunc Dimittis 3:52
05. The Conclusion 3:40
06. The Committal 5:13
07. Meditation 4:22

♫ 01. Requiem Aeternam
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 02. Psalm 121
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 03. Death Is Nothing At All
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 04. Nunc Dimittis
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 05. The Conclusion
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 06. The Committal
© LakeSound Productions LS 010


♫ 07. Meditation
© LakeSound Productions LS 010

The requiem is in memory of my parents. I began the requiem in 1994, when my father died, but finished it in 2000. First performance: St Michel, Luxembourg, November 2001, by Trajecti Voces (Cond. Dirkjan Horringa) and soprano solo Susan Bullock (my sister).

Requiem (Op. 72). This Requiem, like every other, is deeply personal. It was begun in 1994 following the death of my father, put aside, and completed at my house in Wales in the weeks following the death of my mother, in 2000. Written for mixed choir, soprano solo and string orchestra, the seven movements are more or less based upon the texts and the format of the funeral service given for my mother. As well, some of the traditional Latin is used. The work includes settings of Psalm 121 and the Nunc Dimittis which also provides the final Meditation. The third movement, 'Death is nothing at all', for Soprano Solo, is the very core of the work, and its 'message'. The story of the Requiem is quite amazing. It was written with great reluctance and very rapidly. Almost before the (digital) ink was dry, Dirkjan Horringa phoned from the Netherlands to ask if, by chance, I might happen to have a ….. Requiem! … for Trajecti Voces to perform in 2001. We never looked back! The very beautiful performances given by the choir, orchestra and soloists and the inspired conducting of Dirkjan Horringa have had a profound effect on every audience. Miraculously, the recording of the most moving of the initial concerts is not only technically perfect but also free from the normal audience noises which all too often can intrude. I regard both performance and recording as absolutely definitive, and am deeply grateful to all involved.

Requiem for Jan Palach for SATB Soprano Solo and Organ with Latin, Czech and English texts, commissioned by Czech Embassy in Luxembourg, for the 40th anniversary of Jan Palach's protest self-immolation in Prague. 1st performance at the Limpertsberg Church, Luxembourg City, at 19.00 on January 29th 2009. Duration 37 minutes.

Requiem for Jan Palach (Op.182). This Requiem, written in July, 2008, does not offer visions of sanctity, paradise and redemption. Nor is it a celebration of life, or death. By adding to some of the traditional Latin text mighty lines from Jan Hus (some of which are inscribed on his monument in the Old Town Square in Prague), some graffiti which appeared, very briefly, on the Wenceslas Monument just after Jan Palach’s death, and which were rapidly removed, and other words from the Prague of 1968 and 1969 as well as Article One of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the music seeks to confront the horror of a despairing suicide, the smell of petrol and burning flesh and desperation in the face of overwhelming political brutality. Traditional consolation (in the shape, here, of two quotations from the sweetest of Requiems, that of Gabriel Fauré) is irrelevant, and thus violently dispensed with. Eternal Light is replaced by the incandescence of flames. Enduring values are sought. The hope implied by ethical statements is subordinated to the vital necessity of remembering. The music is tonal, despite dissonance, and cyclical. Themes and motifs recur, particularly an organ phrase which seeks to evoke rising heat and flame. At times anguished, the music resolves into stable tonalities associated with enduring ethical concepts. In other places the treatment is almost bucolic, and perhaps with a feel of Bohemia. There is a place for innocence. It has been an honour to write this work, in memory of Jan Palach and of the others who suffered, protested and fought for us all in Prague.