Choral Works

For SATB Choir

Duration - 5'

Programme Note:

The piece sets the text A Moth To A Flame by Glaswegian poet Eve Findlay, about greed and desire. The piece uses element of aleatoricism, or 'singer choice', where they decide which, text, notes and rhythms to sing. As the piece continues, these elements increase, giving the singers more and more freedom. It uses both dense, busy textures and more spacious moments to emulate a push and pull within the moth, that which needs the thing it knows will kill it.

To A Flame was written for the Con Anima Choir as part of the SoundScotland composer development scheme 2026. It was premiered by the choir on the 26th of October 2025 at the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

A recording will be available soon.

For SATB Choir, Flute and Cello (November 2024)

Duration - 7'30"

Setting a brief section of 'The Death Of Cuthulin' from The Poems of Ossian, collected and translated by John Macpherson. The piece focuses on harmony and line created by clusters, and the interaction between solo instruments and choir, especially the texture to be created by the parts.

Whilst no recording exists please feel free to email for access to the score.

For SATB Choir

Duration - 10'

Setting 'Fish heart old man sea world' by Scottish poet Maggie Lawson. The work is in three movements, covering different stanzas from the poem. The first movement, 'The Friends and The Rocks' is about reflecting on the past, on the water and on the sky. As such its quite conservative and wistful, using contour within gestures to emulate a shoreline. The second movement, 'The Ripples and The Stars', is more focused on aspects of the water and the sky, about the rippling nature of water and about the stars. It has much more rhythmic interest and more changes in velocity. The final movement, 'The Old Man and My Heavy Heart', is about the reader, about the cleansing aspect of the water and the realization of the reader’s nature. 

The second movement of the work, 'The Ripples and The Stars', was premiered by the Fulham Chamber Choir on the 17th of February 2024 at St John's Church, conducted by Gerardo Gozzi. A recording of this excerpt can be found here.