The Voice of the Bard

for SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied Using as its basis William Blake's eponymous poem from the Songs of Innocence and Experience, this work is largely celebratory in tone and employs a range of techniques and textures as a means of expression including glissandi, flowing melismatic passages, and exuberant homophonic sections. Commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year for 2006, Chantage and first performed by Chantage, directed by James Davey, at the British Composer Awards on 5 December 2007 in Glaziers Hall, London.