This Lowly Ground
I wrote this anthem for SATB and organ in April 2009, for entry in the HMC Young Composer Competition. The text comes from John Donne’s poem Holy Sonnet VII. It was originally recorded for the competition at St John’s Church, Ipswich by a consortium of singers, directed by myself, with William Baldry (Organ Scholar at Royal Holloway University of London, formerly Organ Scholar at Rochester Cathedral) as organist.
Rather incredibly, it won the anthem prize in the HMC competition, and the prize was a première performance at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. It was performed on October 6 2009 by the St Alban’s Chamber Choir and King Edward’s School Choir, directed by Mick Stout with Professor Ian Tracey as organist.
It has since been performed by Ipswich School Chapel Choir at the school chapel (on Sunday 11 October) and at Salisbury and Winchester Cathedrals (on Wednesday 27 and Friday 29 October respectively) and at St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich for the school Commemoration Service (March 2010). On all of these occasions, the choir was directed by myself with William Saunders as organist.
mp3 files of all of these performances (with the exception of Salisbury Cathedral) can be downloaded below, and the sheet music is also available as a Scorch score.
Recordings
Ipswich School Chapel