John Tavener: Intermediate Sheet Music

Svyati - 'O Holy One' for choir and solo cello. Text in church Slavonic. Quoting Tavener: 'I began to write Svyati in early 1995: while sketching it, Iearned that John Williams, father of Jane, my dea...

A sacred work for unaccompanied SSATBB choir, using text from The Order For The Burial Of Dead Priests, translated from Greek by Isabel Hapgood. Vocal score with piano accompaniment for rehearsal purp...

Composed by John Tavener through commission by the Royal British Legion for the Festival of Remembrance. First performed on the 8th November 2003 at the Albert Hall, London. The piece is written for d...

Commissioned by George Watson's College, to mark the Millennium. The work was first performed in December 2000 at St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, as part of the College's Festival Of Nine Lessons And...

Commissioned for the Nine Lessons and Carols service at King's College, Cambridge, December 2005.

Written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The composer writes The Open Secret is a hadith, or traditional saying of the Prophet Mohammad, attributed to Ali Ibn Abi Talib. The profundity of this hadith mov...

Commissioned by the Westminster Cathedral. This piece for Treble Voices with Organ was first performed in June 2005 at Westminster Cathedral, London, by Westminster Cathedral Choir. Missa Brevis Is de...

Commissioned by the Westminster Cathedral. This piece for Treble Voices with Organ was first performed in June 2005 at Westminster Cathedral, London, by Westminster Cathedral Choir. Missa Brevis Is de...

In this small-scale song cycle, Taverner coloured his melodic Soprano lines with Eastern European and Slavic flavour. At some points the composer interplayed the Piano line with the sung melody and at...

Hymn of Dawn was commissioned jointly by the Ulster Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. First performance on 7th November 2004 during the Belfast Festival at Queen's, at the Waterfront Hall,...

This work was commissioned by the Cheshire County Council for the 900th anniversary of Chester Cathedral, for performance at the Chester Summer Music festival 1992. The opening melody on the solo cell...

A divine allegory, pondering on the mystery of the incarnation as described by St. Ephrem the Syrian. For mixed chorus, semichorus (TB), handbell and organ.

Atma Mass was commissioned by Liverpool Cathedral for the Centenary of the Laying of the Foundation Stone. First performance on 18th July 2004 at the Centenary Eucharist, by the choir of Liverpool Cat...

A work written for double choir set to words from the Latin prayer Salve Regina and a German poem Stella Matutina.

Written for SSATBB choir.

Commissioned by King's College Cambridge with generous funding from Donald Stewart in memory of his wife, Beryl. First performed at the Advent Procession Service on Sunday 26th November 2006, given by...

Work for Solo Piano commissioned for the City of London Festival in 1999. Quoting John Tavener: Ypaköe, in Greek refers to the Yapöe of Easter 'Why seek ye among the dead, as though He were mortal man...

Written for solo piano. This work was commissioned by the English Chamber Orchestra and Music Society.

A Choral Suite in eight movements for SATB (multi divisi). The texts are taken from different sources, including Chuang Tse, an Acoman Indian and a poem written by a young Czech victim of Auschwitz.

Taken from Veil of the Temple and arranged for string orchestra.

This work for viola, chorus and percussion was commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus, and was first performed in October 1994 at the Barbican Hall, London by Yuri Bashmet and the London Symphony...

Prayer of the Heart was inspired by The Chain of Hope. This charitable organisation raises money for the treatment of heart disorders in children, including Marfan's Syndrome, of which John Tavener is...

The Sanskrit words Maya and Atma represent the opposites of illusion and reality. This piece, taken from Tavener's large scale choral work Rending Of The Veil Of The Temple starts out in contemplative...