On Waking (Morning)
Instrumentation – choir
Duration – c.5′
Written in Brighton Dec 2013-Jan 2014
First performed by The Chapel Choir Of Selwyn College, Cambridge, at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, London, 18th March 2015
Dedicated to my Grandpa, Douglas Ian Westwood. Commissioned by MusArc through the Sound & Music ‘Portfolio’ Scheme. The piece deals with the idea of focus, both spatially and texturally, and explores the transition between dreaming and being awake. Some sections of the work employ a technique which is inspired by the Gaelic Psalms sung in the outer Hebrides, whereby the congregation sing a single line, but their entries are staggered so as to create a great wash of sound, reminiscent of the waves of the sea. Based on the text ‘Morning’ by Rowan Sawday, which I commissioned especially for the piece.