Please notify me if you intend to perform any of the music on this page. See individual entries for further licence conditions.
In 2021 (as in 2020), the BBC Carol Competition called for only the melody of a carol suitable for community singing. The text they chose was Love Came Down at Christmas by Christina Rossetti. In a burst of enthusiasm I wrote not just one but three different melodies and arranged them for SATB choir before deciding which one to submit (as a melody only, in compliance with the rules of the contest). Sadly my entry (the first of the three) did not reach the BBC shortlist.
Slightly jazzy and upbeat, this melody is the one that was submitted to the competition. After submitting it I arranged it as a full piece for SATB choir and piano.
Mellow and contemplative, this version would be suitable for an a cappella choir. In 2022 I added an arrangement of the middle verse with the melody in the tenor line.
Upbeat but straightforward in rhythm and harmony, this version might be suitable for singing as a congregational hymn and sets the three verses to the same music.
I wrote an entry for the BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition 2020. Although the BBC rules this year called for only the melody of a carol suitable for community singing, I wrote a full arrangement. The BBC received only the melody line (set to the words of the first verse) and did not choose it for their shortlist.
Although I did write an arrangement of Imtiaz Dharker's poem Go to the Child for the 2019 Carol Competition, this entry is not currently public because the text hasn't been licensed for use outside the competition (as far as I know).
My brother Andrew also wrote an entry, and has published it with the words removed; this can be found at https://musescore.com/user/24139/scores/5871555.
I wrote an entry for the BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition 2018 which unfortunately did not reach the shortlist. Since the text for that competition is presumably under copyright, having been written by Carol Ann Duffy in 2011, I have composed my own words to go with the music I submitted to the competition. Therefore this is a new and unique choral anthem for Christmas.
A version of this carol with the Bee Carol text selected by the BBC can be made available on request, provided you confirm that you will take responsibility for clearing any copyright on the words.
I wrote this for the BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition 2017 but it was not shortlisted, which means there are apparently at least six better carols to these same words (as well as the very famous one by William Mathias). But here it is anyway.
I wrote this for the BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition 2016 and as such this was my first failure to make the shortlist in this competition. As well as the BBC's shortlisted entries, there is also a setting by Peter Wishart in ‘100 Carols’. But here it is anyway.
Note: the performance largely doesn't respect the dynamics or breath marks, which were mostly added after the recording was done (and may be treated as suggestions). In addition, bar 30 in the score was later shortened to 6/8. The generated MIDI file also doesn't seem to respect the dynamics, nor the pause before bar 72.
My brother Andrew also wrote an entry (completely different from this one); his can be found at https://musescore.com/user/24139/scores/2949376.
I wrote this for the Christening of my son in 2004 and it has been in the Wesley Memorial Church choir's library ever since, brought out occasionally as an alternative to the more well known Rutter setting.
In 1994 for obscure reasons (to do with having heard some incidental music by Patrick Williams on a TV drama) I started experimenting to see if I could write in fugal form. While this was happening, Schola Cantorum of Oxford announced an amateur composers' competition for choral music, so I rearranged what I had into SATB form, continued in that vain, and put some words to it. This piece did not make the shortlist, and the words didn't fit all that well, so I took them back off again. (Approximately fifteen years later, a typographical error was spotted in the score.)
So this is the piece; it needs some words. It could possibly be the ‘Amen’ of a much longer piece yet to be discovered. Or maybe it should be an instrumental piece — it might work well as an organ piece.