Annual commission

2002

No Answer

Timothy Jackson

Russian and Nigerian poets on silence and protest, in the first JAM commission at St Bride's.

Buy the score

Listen

Premiere programme

Ask JAM

Forces

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Duration

22'

Words

Chris Abani, Maria Terentyeva, Mikhail Kudinov, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lev Timofeyev

Premiere

14 March 2002

Venue

St Bride's, Fleet Street

Performers

Claire Seaton (soprano), Jeremy Budd (tenor), Neil Bellingham (baritone), St Bride's Choir, Benjamin Bayl (organ), Robert Jones (conductor)

Co-commissioned with

Dedication

Publisher

Second performance

Interested in performing this work, or have a question about the score, the recording or the commission? JAM would love to hear from you.

Get in touch

Programme note

More commissions

Sarah MacDonald

Christmas hath a beauty

SATB Choir

Rossetti's winter carol for the choirs of Britain, JAM's second annual Christmas commission.

Christmas carol commission

▶

Claude Debussy, arranged by Timothy Jackson

La Mer

Chamber Ensemble

30'

Debussy's sea for eleven musicians, made for a church on Romney Marsh.

Arrangement commission

▶

Maurice Ravel, arranged by Julien Durand

Piano Concerto in G

Piano solo · Chamber Ensemble

30'

Ravel's jazz-tinged concerto, rescored for chamber ensemble and a nineteen-year-old soloist.

Arrangement commission

A new chamber opera for two voices, cello and harp, told across Wales, London and Kent in its first run.

Choir (Christmas carol)

A Christmas carol by JAM's President, written in memory and first sung in London.

Christmas carol commission

Lisa Murfitt's dawn poem set for the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College at Hythe.

Five minutes of string septet from a Call for Music composer, premiered in a marsh church.

Annual commission

▶

Joseph Phibbs

Seven Songs of Nature

Choir · Organ · Brass Quintet

20'

Hopkins, Belloc and folk songs for choir, brass and organ, dedicated to Nicholas Cleobury.

Violin solo · String orchestra · Harpsichord · Percussion

20'

Strings, harpsichord and percussion around a solo violin: a concerto shared with the London Mozart Players.

Organ and two trumpets light up St Bride's in a six-minute fanfare.

A starling flock for string orchestra, the President's Award commission for a Masterclass composer.

President's Award commission

▶

John Frederick Hudson

Wild Earth Blazing

Tenor · Horn · String Orchestra · Piano · Percussion

42'

Mark Padmore, Ben Goldscheider and the London Mozart Players in a forty-minute song cycle on Esme Lloyd's verse.

SATB divisi unaccompanied

Louise Glück's poem for unaccompanied voices, written for the Delaware Choral Scholars.

Masterclass Series winner

Turnage marks thirty years of Onyx Brass with twelve minutes written for the quintet itself.

An hour-long oratorio sung by two Romney Marsh primary schools, a boys' choir and the London Mozart Players.

Annual commission

▶

Tara Creme

The Song I Came to Sing

SATB divisi · Brass quintet · Organ

Tagore for choir, brass and organ, from a co-winner of the VOCES8 Masterclass Series.

Masterclass Series winner

▶

Judith Bingham

Concerto for Clarinet

String Orchestra · Clarinet solo

18'

Robert Plane and eleven strings in Bingham's concerto for the London Mozart Players.

Annual commission

▶

Janet Wheeler

Up in the Morning Early

Brass Quintet

A Burns-inspired brass quintet from the winner of the Onyx Brass Masterclass Series.

Masterclass Series winner

▶

Jack Oades

Between the Stormclouds and the Sea

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

33'

Grahame Davies's words on the Marsh and the sea, for choir, brass, organ and narrator.

String Orchestra · Percussion · Piano solo

17'

Mealor's concerto, premiered online in lockdown with the London Mozart Players and the composer's dedicatee at the keyboard.

Annual commission

▶

Samuel Becker, Julian Broughton, Michael Finnissy, Alison Kay and Nicola LeFanu

Variations Down the Line

Piano Solo

15 new variations (duration to confirm)

Bach's Goldberg Variations with five living composers answering back, curated and played by Rachel Fryer.

Eight minutes for string orchestra from a Call for Music composer, premiered by the London Mozart Players.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Three anthems (duration to confirm)

Richard II's prison soliloquy, reimagined by Chloe Stopa-Hunt in three anthems for choir, brass and organ.

Festival commission

▶

Rory Boyle

Songs from the Marshes

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

24'

Claudia Daventry's Romney Marsh poems, sung by the BBC Singers at Hythe.

Annual commission

▶

Tom Harold and Stuart Beach

Voices of Vimy

SATB divisi Choir · Cello Solo

34'

A Canadian battlefield, a Welsh poet and a solo cello, co-commissioned with Pro Coro Canada.

SATB divisi · Soprano solo

13'

Tagore for soprano and divided choir, sung by the BBC Singers in New Romney.

SATB Choir · Strings · Percussion

20'

A Mass for the Somme, premiered on the centenary by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Cardiff.

Co-commission

▶

Thea Musgrave

The Voices of Our Ancestors

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

30'

Thea Musgrave sets nine ancient languages in translation, for choir, brass and organ.

Co-commission

▶

Judith Bingham

Oboe Concerto, "The Angel of Mons"

Oboe · String Orchestra

15'

A First World War legend for oboe and strings, premiered in Holborn by Red Note Ensemble.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet · Percussion

18'

Edward Lear's nonsense romance with brass, organ and percussion, premiered at St Davids Cathedral.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

40'

An Anglesey folk tale of a stranger washed ashore, for soloists, choir, children's choir, brass and organ.

SATB Choir · Tenor · Organ · Brass quintet

15'

Simon Christmas's words for tenor, choir, brass and organ, published by Faber.

Eleven solo strings and a stretch of Kent coast, written for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Annual commission

▶

Philip Cashian

All Things Wear Silence

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

21'

Valentine Ackland's poems for choir, brass and organ, from the composer who heads composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Organ · Brass quintet

11'

Tallis refracted through brass and organ, premiered at St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen.

Baritone · Brass quintet

10'

Timothy Knapman's words for baritone and brass quintet, sung by Giles Underwood at St Bride's.

SATB Choir · Brass quintet

10'

Rick Holland's words for choir and brass, an early commission for a composer now heard worldwide.

Annual commission

▶

Paul Mealor

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

SATB Choir

12'

Tennyson's love poem, set the year before Mealor's music was heard by two billion people at the royal wedding.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

16'

Samuel Daniel's Elizabethan verse for choir, brass and organ, co-commissioned with VocalEssence in Minneapolis.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

20'

Charles and Emma Darwin in their own words, for choir, brass and organ, in the Darwin bicentenary year.

Annual commission

▶

Gabriel Jackson

The Spacious Firmament

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

20'

Addison's hymn of the heavens for choir, brass and organ, published by Oxford University Press.

Annual commission

▶

Adam Gorb

Thoughts Scribbled on a Blank Wall

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

22'

Words by Ben Kaye and hostage John McCarthy, for baritone, choir, brass and organ.

Annual commission

▶

Judith Bingham

My Heart Strangely Warm'd

Countertenor · Bass · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

14'

A Wesley conversion, a countertenor and a bass: the JAM piece that won Bingham a British Composer Award.

Countertenor · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

27'

Ben Kaye's poems on Romney Marsh, the fifth continent, for countertenor, choir, brass and organ.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

28'

Clare, Herrick, Hardy, Whitman and Blake in a garden of songs for choir, brass and organ.

Annual commission

▶

Jonathan Dove

The Far Theatricals of Day

SATB Soloists · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

20'

Emily Dickinson for soloists, choir, brass and organ, premiered in Canterbury Cathedral.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

22'

Russian and Nigerian poets on silence and protest, in the first JAM commission at St Bride's.

Annual commission

▶