Wonder is one of the first pieces I wrote, composed aged seventeen for the Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition 2021, and subsequently selected as the winning piece. My intention was to write a secular carol which nonetheless had a deep sense of spirituality—a piece that felt spellbinding, gentle, and evanescent. I was drawn to this beautiful early poem by the American poet Emily Dickinson, whose words evoke an understated yet profound sense of wonder at Christmas-time. For some, this wonder may be the miracle of the nativity, the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem; for others, it may speak to a broader, more humanistic sense of awe and reverence.

Musically, the setting begins with a haze of delicate chord clusters, with hushed accompanying lines supporting a gentle, lilting melody. The climactic phrase—“Wonder upon wonder”—is illuminated by a modal shift, lifting into the brightness of A major, before the piece returns to the whispered, spiritual atmosphere of the opening.