Instrumental and vocal works
As a composer of instrumental and choral works, Howard Moody has been commissioned by various organisations including London Symphony Orchestra, La Monnaie, La Folia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Salisbury International Arts Festival, Southern Cathedrals Festival, English National Opera, the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Children's Music Workshop, Bangladesh Festival, Station House Opera and The National Forest Project.
Stone Songs
Written by Howard Moody
Commissioned by La Folia
2020/2022
'We, like living stones, will make it sound again'
Written 800 years after the laying of the Cathedral’s foundation stone, Stone Songs is a work for soloists, chorus and orchestra, reflecting on the skill, vision and dedication that it took to build such a magnificent building, and inspired by the ancient chants that have resonated from the stones since the 13th century.
La Folia’s commissioning of Stone Songs was supported by Fawcetts Chartered Accountants, an anonymous trust, Mr and Mrs J Carvell, Lady Newbigging, Veronica Stewart Arts Trust and two La Folia Friends.
Programme Note
Seven sections for large chorus and soloists are punctuated by six variations on original Gregorian chants from the ancient ritualistic manuscripts known as The Sarum Rite, stored in the Cathedral library since the 13th Century.
Stone Songs reflects on how the stones evolved over millions of years of geological time. Individual stones were quarried and then selected by tapping them with a brass rod in order to discover any fractures or fossilised air pockets that would weaken their strength.
References from the Bible express the human capacity for vision including references to the ancient archetypal stories of Jacob's Ladder, Solomon's Temple and Peter 'The Rock'. The Latin texts include Nisi Dominus ('The Builders' Psalm'), encouraging quality and commitment in a craftsman's pursuit of divine proportion. Their work ethic is articulated in The Regis Manuscript from the late 14th Century, demanding that workers trust and support each other.
A workers' chorus and a Lacrimosa reflect on all those who sacrificed their lives during this treacherous pursuit of architectural perfection.
The 2018 fire at Notre Dame in Paris inspired a community responsibility to protect and preserve great architecture. As the Gregorian chant expresses – Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est – where there is charity and love, there God is. Visionary buildings of beautiful proportion are more than the sum of their parts, drawing us together as one.
Image by Susan Berber-Credner
Shifting Shingle
Written by Howard Moody
Commissioned by Arts Dream Selsey for HM Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations 2022.
The first performance of ‘Shifting Shingle’ was given in Selsey on June 5th, 2022 as an Arts Dream Selsey project managed by Chris Butler and co-ordinated by Belinda Gannon, involving the people of Selsey and the surrounding area.
Composer’s Note
The shingle reef at Selsey’s East Beach still emerges at every low tide but today the lagoon that inspired Eric Coates to write ‘The Sleepy Lagoon’ has disappeared. As a child I learned to swim in the lagoon - a naturally formed sea lake that gradually shifted over the years, now covered by the shifting shingle that moves with the complex cross currents, winter storms and rising waters. Its territory remains a largely undisturbed paradise for the turnstones, gulls, and spectacular murmurations.
I have visited this place every year of my life in all seasons, intrigued by the fishermen who come off the stormy waters with their nets and lobster pots. In recent interviews, these craftsmen of the waters described the conditions that they face to survive. I was especially struck by an account by one of them that he was not allowed to whistle on a fishing boat - he had to sing instead. So, here is a piece that I hope will eventually make its way out to sea!
Howard Moody
March 2022
In the hand of God
A choral work composed by Howard Moody for Southern Cathedrals Festival (2015), published by Edition Peters and recorded by Salisbury Cathedral Choir. Inspired by a dream of a friend who was diagnosed with cancer, this motet expresses conflict and resolution in Hebrew, Latin and English. Image by Ash Mills, 2016
London Symphony Orchestra
Howard Moody has written and conducted twelve sets of variations for London Symphony Orchestra’s On Track Next Generation scheme since 2009. Together with players from the orchestra, Howard leads improvisation workshops on a chosen theme that culminate in a unique collective performance by the orchestra and the project participants in the Barbican Concert Hall. Image courtesy of LSO, Crimson River 2017
Paco Peña’s Requiem for the Earth
Requiem for the Earth was a collaborative composition between flamenco guitarist Paco Peña and Howard Moody, and was premièred at the Salisbury International Arts Festival. Future performances included one of the opening concerts of the newly-refurbished Royal Festival Hall, London in 2007. Image from Amazon.co.uk
Header image by Adrian Harris, 2016