Like as the Hart

Like as the Hart was first performed in May 2004 by the VOX Ensemble conducted by George Steel as part of theMATA Festival, New York.  The composer writes 'Like as the Hart is my response to Herbert Howells's more famous setting of this Psalm paraphrase. I have always been obsessed with the length of Howells's melodies and the way that the harmonies trail behind the tunes like halos. In my version, I invert this relationship, with massive elongatedharmonies dragging melodic fragments behind them. I arranged the harmonies in a large arch form with shrinking and expanding rhythms on either side of the central point (on the word 'God.')