Hymns of Perpetuity (op. 13)

 

Hymns of Perpetuity for Mixed Choir (SSAATTBB)

Hymns of Perpetuity is a three-movement work for mixed choir, composed in 2025. It engages with some of the most iconic hymn melodies in the English tradition—tunes that are widely known and deeply rooted in choral culture.

These familiar tunes are not preserved but pushed—expanded into rich counterpoint and harmonic detail that challenge both choir and listener. The music explores chromatic density, layered textures, and tight harmonic motion, often stretching the original material into something more searching, more unstable, yet still grounded in the character of the source.

1. Tune (Psalm 2)
   Based on Thomas Tallis’s setting of Psalm 2, this movement opens the work with a mood of quiet volatility. The text begins with the line “Why fumeth in sight”, and the music responds with intricate modal counterpoint and a tightly woven choral texture. Rather than harsh dissonance, the tension arises from rhythmic complexity and shifting modes, maintaining a poised, simmering intensity throughout.
2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
   This movement hurtles forward with precision-cut velocity, its four-part counterpoint slicing through the texture in a tightly wound double canon. The familiar Christmas melody is broken apart and ricochets between voices in fast-moving, chromatic lines—creating an electrified texture that tests the ensemble’s agility and control.
3. The Day Thou Gavest
   The final movement opens up into slow, broad textures. The original hymn is stretched and reharmonized, with sustained dissonances and subtle shifts that evoke a kind of quiet intensity rather than resolution.

Hymns of Perpetuity demands a choir with both technical precision and interpretive depth—capable of navigating tight voicings, shifting modes, and fast-moving counterpoint. It requires a sharp ear, flexible ensemble awareness, and the courage to embrace complexity in service of clarity and intensity.