Howard Skempton

This simple, well-crafted motet is bright, optimistic, and compelling. Skempton employs artful homophony and sensitive word-setting, and the repetitions of the opening refrain build towards an effecti...

Skempton's setting of the Preces and Responses is simple, well-crafted, and harmonically rewarding, and is perfect for choirs seeking new material for the liturgy.

A simple setting of this popular medieval Advent carol which has great originality and impact. The style is controlled, almost austere, and the effect is hypnotic. This is an unsettling but poignant p...

This is the second of two books of preludes and fugues for solo organ by Howard Skempton. Each book comprises 25 pairs of preludes and fugues based around the 24 major and minor keys. The additional e...

Setting a variety of texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson, this four-movement work is in Skempton's inimitable minimalist aesthetic. The first three movements move in strict four-part homophony before the fin...

Featured on pianist William Howard's album Sixteen Contemporary Love Songs, this evocative miniature is simple but rewarding, with a repeating eight-bar chord progression that produces a kaleidoscopic...

More sweet than my refrain is a tender miniature for three-part choir set to the text of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The motet features on the new Ars Nova Copenhagen recording, 'First Drop' (Cante...

Fifty-five short pieces, the earliest of which dates from 1967, the most recent from 1993. Taken as a whole, this selection of pieces (chosen by the composer) provides a rich overview of the keyboard...

This is a collection of 36 piano pieces dating from 1995 to 2002. At times enigmatic, at others direct, the writing captures and reflects a myriad of moods, revealing Skempton's highly original voice....

This serene and reflective setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis was commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells. With expansive harmonies and...

Skempton's setting of the Preces and Responses is simple, well-crafted, and harmonically rewarding, and is perfect for choirs seeking new material for the liturgy.

This setting of the Song of Songs is a fine example of Skempton's distinctive ability to distil and express the emotional essence of a text. Beautifully understated, and employing a straightforward to...

This contemplative setting of Psalm 23 presents the well-loved 'The Lord is my Shepherd' text within a four-part, homophonic texture. Hymn-like and lyrical, this unaccompanied composition is illustrat...

This contemplative setting of Psalm 23 presents the well-loved 'The Lord is my Shepherd' text within a four-part, homophonic texture. Hymn-like and lyrical, this unaccompanied composition is illustrat...

This is an imaginative setting of a sequence of nine poems from 'Viking Poetry of Love and War' by Judith Jesch. The war poems are formal and celebratory, making vivid use of figures of speech known a...

This is an imaginative setting of a sequence of nine poems from 'Viking Poetry of Love and War' by Judith Jesch. The war poems are formal and celebratory, making vivid use of figures of speech known a...

Originally published in The Ivy and the Holly, this lively setting of a text by Francis Kinwelmershe features a lilting melody and homophonic texture throughout, allowing the spirit of the text to shi...

Skempton's setting of one of the fool's songs from Twelfth Night is poignant and sombre, featuring angular melodies and homophonic textures that clearly convey Shakespeare's moving words. Originally p...

In Grown about by fragrant bushes, Skempton sets a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson using gentle, lilting melodies. The theme of loss is sensitively conveyed in a tonal language that is made more expres...

From the collection Epiphany to All Saints for Choirs, this lively and spiritual-influenced piece features a constantly shifting time signature and a text by the composer narrating the journey of the...

This short Missa brevis setting is perfect for choirs looking to bring a fresh soundworld to their worship. Each movement is distinct in character, but with an overall cohesiveness of harmonic languag...

Skempton's After Rain sets an evocative text by Edward Thomas with a contemplative choral part over a rich and slow-moving cello line. Skempton alternates between contrasting upper-voice duets and ful...

A short, eloquant piece commissioned by Winchester College reflecting the spirit of Advent. Offprinted from the collection Cantica Nova.

In Skempton's effective minimalistic style, this short work sets a well-known sacred text from Ecclesiastes 3, 1DS8. Emphasis is given to the text through the homorhythmic texture and flexible metre.

Setting William Johnson Cory's translation of Callimachus's epigram, this poignant piece exemplifies Skempton's minimalist aesthetic. Using a restrained rhythmic palette of minims and crotchets, the w...