Programme Note

Pride Motets began with a setting of e.e. cummings’ poem “I carry your heart with me”, written for the Pride Contemplation at Somerville College in June 2023. It was a short piece, but one that really resonated with the choir. Later that year, the Choir of York Minster asked me to write something for their Pride Compline, and from that commission the idea for a larger project emerged: a short cycle of pieces for Pride Month, drawing together different aspects of the queer experience through choral music. The result was Pride Motets: three movements, each setting a text that speaks to queer life in some way. Rather than a grand statement, these pieces are personal reflections on love, heartbreak, shame, longing, resilience, self-acceptance and joy.

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The cycle opens with a sonnet by Richard Barnfield, written at the turn of the seventeenth century. From the first time I read it, I knew it had to begin the cycle. The language is tender and direct, and—remarkably, given its date—open in its portrayal of same-sex love. It captures both the pain of unrequited love and the quiet shame that can so often accompany queer longing. The second movement acts as a pivot. It sets a short extract from Jay Hulme’s “Jesus in the Gay Bar”—a brief but powerful declaration of unconditional love. The final movement is my setting of e.e. cummings. For me, this poem is one of the most moving declarations of love in the English language. In a queer context, it takes on an added resonance: a celebration of being able to express vulnerability,  devotion and trust for your lover; the joy of loving openly and freely.

The first movement ends with a baritone solo, supported by soft, sustained choral textures. These background lines should remain light and understated—present, but never drawing attention away from the solo line. The second movement opens with short aleatoric fragments, marked “a few voices”. These should be sung by a small group of around six to eight singers. The entries should feel natural and unforced, emerging imperceptibly, like gentle voices murmuring out of earshot.