Five Carols from Quem Quaeritis (1967)

For women’s or children’s choir

These five unaccompanied motets for a choir of female (originally children’s) voices were extracted from my nativity play Quem Quaeritis (text devised by Graham Williams), which I composed in 1967 while still a student in the Music Department of The University of Adelaide.

Today, more than thirty years after their composition, I think they can count as a respectable Opus 1, all my prior works having been withdrawn.

The settings are of mediæval English texts, and the influence of Peter Maxwell Davies, who had been my teacher in the previous year, is often evident.

 

Recordings:

On the CD An Australian Christmas
Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, conducted by Antony Walker
View this CD on iTunes.

On the CD Reflections
The Carlson Chorale

 

Listen:

 

Score:

Available through the Australian Music Centre
View a sample of this score.