Updates in the New Year...

...And a Tennyson music video

Dear friends,

May I wish you a very happy New Year! Like many of you, I’ve been on an extended holiday break, which means I wasn’t able to post last week. But I’m now back to normally scheduled slate of posts, and so I hope you’ll keep your eyes out for more in the coming weeks.

I had a delightful time celebrating Christmas and New Years with a number of family members, and enjoying the glorious (albeit bitterly cold) snowy mountain landscape of Colorado. There weren’t many opportunities for strolls in the wintery weather, but when we could, we took our chances and at times were rewarded with wonderful mountain vistas!

On a delightful stroll with my wonderful mother near the wilds of Pike National Forest.

After a relaxing time recuperating from the intensity of the year, I’ve made the transatlantic journey back to Jolly Old England, and am back amongst the dreaming spires in Oxford. It’s still a little quiet and cool here, but none the worse for wear, and it’s lovely to enjoy its charms once more.

News in the New Year

Lots of exciting occurrences to bring to all of your attention in the past couple of weeks:

For you choir nerds, I’m thrilled to say that my original SATB divisi piece, Jupiter Shall Emerge, which was a prize-winning finalist in VOCES8’s 2023 Composer Competition, has just been published through VOCES8’s own publishing arm. If you’re interested in performing it with your own choir, or perhaps just obtaining a perusal score for your own analysis, you can now purchase digital copies directly from the VOCES8 website at this link.

For those of you interested in following my academic pursuits, I’m equally delighted to say that a journal article I’ve been working on for a couple of years, focused on Scottish composer James MacMillan’s musical theology, has just been released as part of a special issue of Yale Journal of Music and Religion. It’s a deep dive into a topic that, as a composer of faith, has been of great interest to me during my studies in theology at St Andrews. If it is of interest, you can access it here.

Finally, for those of you who regularly read in Portuguese, I’m utterly chuffed to let you know that my book Sensing God: Experiencing the Divine in Nature, Food, Music and Beauty, has been translated into Portuguese for release in the Brazilian market and throughout the Portuguese world, as Uma experiência com o sagrado: Sentindo a beleza divina no cotidiano, with publisher Editora Mundo Cristao! You can find out more at the publisher’s website.

Some seaward narration and video delights

Changing gears a bit, I wanted to offer, as a follow up to my discussion of Tennyson’s Ulysses, an actual narration of a portion of the poem.