John Casken

Chorpartitur

John Casken's 2009 setting of the Robert Browning poem 'Night and Morning' for tenor and piano was the starting point for a new song cycle, Lines from a Wanderer, exploring man's desire to travel, to...

This Easter anthem by British composer John Casken is an expert example of contemporary choral writing and would be ideal for amateur choirs looking for exciting new repertoire.

There is a sense of unease in the imagined landscape of John Casken’s Misted Land, as familiar shapes take on a new and sometimes grotesque and frightening appearance. Fragments of folk-like melodies...

A mantle can be many things and as well as meaning a protective garment, it can also be associated with encouraging feminine energy and creativity, healing, and comforting love. Gardeners will know th...

Sitting in a room, we hear the ticking of the clock, but it doesn't seem right. The speed is wrong (for a clock) and it is quite irregular. From a far corner someone starts to sing a quiet song while...

Nearly Distant is a bravura romp for saxophone quartet from one of Britain's leading composers.

This short string quartet is the third that Casken has written for the renowned Lindsays. It is an ideal introduction to the contemporary string quartet, well within the capabilities of student quarte...

Stolen Airs takes as its starting point an episode from Sylvie and the Songman, an opera I am writing in collaboration with the novelist Tim Binding. The Songman has developed the technique of stealin...

The title of this piece comes from 'Celtic Cross' by Norman MacCaig, a poem that brings to life the symbols of an earlier time, carved in stone, entwined and plaited in abstract forms. The idea of a c...

'Amethyst Deceiver' is a short piece inspired by the idea of a mysterious woodland setting in which strange things come to life. 'Amethyst deceivers' are tiny purple mushrooms, rarely seen, but when f...

Après un silence was originally written as a work for violin and piano. The piano part was subsequently orchestrated in such a way that the work may be performed with a chamber orchestra or with an en...

These six short pieces might more readily be described as fantasies, each with its own sound-world but linked by shared material. The mood of each of these short movements is guided by an imaginary la...

The text (by the composer) concerns the life and work of the French painter, Paul Gauguin: his early period when he was full of doubts and uncertainty, his discovery of exotic climes, and his eventual...

Composed for Northern Sinfonia Chorus and Gavin Osborn.

John Casken's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis was commissioned to mark the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East of England, where Casken lives. The book, dating from the 7th century, is on...

Commissioned by the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, this a cappella choral showpiece sets poems about the sea by Katrina Porteous.Voices gently rock and then tumble violently, mimicking the re...

This short solo piano piece is a variation on a theme by Rameau. Casken has created in this work a broad Gaelic sound world along with sultry Debussian colours.The piece was written for the British pi...