John Casken

'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...

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...

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...

In spite of having written many works including piano, before composing my new suite of pieces there were only two for solo piano: The Haunting Bough and Pleasure Ground. I decided to incorporate thes...

Sacrificium was commissioned by the St Albans International Organ Festival for what has become one of the most influential organ competitions in the world. It is a demanding 8 minute work that will ch...

This work's title comes from DM Thomas's dramatic poem on an imagined episode in the life of Cleopatra. Cleopatra offers any three men from her royal court a night of unbridled passion, in return for...

This work's title comes from DM Thomas's dramatic poem on an imagined episode in the life of Cleopatra. Cleopatra offers any three men from her royal court a night of unbridled passion, in return for...

The Greek word 'amarantos' means 'everlasting' or 'unfading', and the title was suggested by the amaranthine flowers in E.E.Cummings' sonnet 'this is the garden', where the flowers stand 'enraptured'...

John Casken, who celebrates his 60th birthday in 2009, set Christina Rossetti's In the bleak mid-winter - a poem popularised by Gustav Holts' setting of the same name - for Alwinton and Holystone Chur...

John Casken, who celebrates his 60th birthday in 2009, set Christina Rossetti's In the bleak mid-winter - a poem popularised by Gustav Holts' setting of the same name - for Alwinton and Holystone Chur...

A string quartet written in the late twentieth century which acknowledges the classical four movement model may seem a quaintly old-fashioned approach, but I wanted to see if my own concerns for colou...

This edition includes two vocal works by John Casken for four male voices. Both Sharp Thorne (7 mins) and To the Lovers' Well (10 mins) interweave ancient and modern texts, ideal choices for vocal ens...

Madonna of Silence is far from the quiet piece implied by the title. Indeed, it reflects the inner turbulence of Michelangelo's extraordinary drawing Madonna del Silenzio on which the work is based. M...