Compositions
If you would like to preview or perform any pieces please contact Helen
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A Voice for our Age
SATB (some divisi) with Organ
6.5 min
Commissioned by the Guild of St Bride: a celebration of St Brigid of Kildare and her links to the Guild of St Bride’s Church Fleet Street. Premiered at St Bride’s Church, 7 September 2025 St Bride’s Choir and Organist, conducted by Robert Jones.
Ave Verum Corpus
Choir AATTBB
2.5 - 3 min
The opening plainchant is the starting point for this setting, which then develops into a solemn but tender expression.
Cinq Antiennes
See individual movements for forces
10 min
i Nolite me - tenors and cornet
ii Quea est ista - sopranos and altos with sackbut
iii Laus Trinitatis - tenors, baritones and basses with theorbo
iv Ego dormio - S,S,A,T,Bar,B
v Instrumental dance, strings, sackbuts and cornets
Commissioned by Radio France: Five antiphons written to sit interspersed throughout the Monteverdi Vespers, can be performed separately. Premiered at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris, 25 April 2025 performed by Le Choeur de Radio France and Le Consort, conducted by Lionel Sow.
Comète
Voice and piano
2 min
Commissioned by Alison Smart Fisher for New French Song II. The continuous motion of the piano part represents a feeling of simmering energy beyond space and time. Premiered at Burgh House, Hampstead, 25 September 2024, performed by soprano Alison Smart Fisher and pianist Katharine Durran.
Cradle Song
Solo voice and piano
3.5 min
Words by William Blake. Commissioned for the Great Chishill Carol Service (2022) and
first performed there on 9/12/22 by mezzo soprano Jessica Gillingwater and pianist Paul
Plummer. Radio 3 broadcast on 19 December 2022 performed by mezzo soprano Katherine
Nicholson and Pianist Richard Pearce.
Fragments
Voice and piano
1.5 min
Written in response to an Errollyn Wallen social media challenge to write a song (words and music) in an hour, using the extra hour gained when the clocks changed in October 2024. ‘Premiered’ on Social media 27 October 2024 Soprano Helen Neeves, Piano Marcus Vere.
Hail Gladdening Light
SATB with Organ
3 min
Joyful sparkly organ with choir. Premiered in Choral Evensong, St Paul’s Knightsbridge, 7 March 2025, BBC Singers conducted by Graham Walker.
I Saw Three Ships A-sailing
SSAATTBB
3.5 min
The text from the traditional carol is the starting point for the words. This is a reflection on the contrast between those fleeing adversity in the hope of finding something better, and the relative comfort that is so widely enjoyed in other places. Gentle lilting momentum throughout.
King Herod and the Cock
Upper Voices and piano with optional drums and bass
2.5 min
Jazzy arrangement of the folk carol, with musical references to other traditional Christmas
Carols. First performed on 10 December 2021 at Milton Court, London, by the BBC SIngers with Iain Farrington on the piano, Guildhall Jazz Orchestra drums and bass (parts arranged by Iain), conducted by Nicholas Kok. Radio 3 broadcast on 17 December 2021.
Minstrels
Choir SSAATTBB
2 min
Christmas carol with words by William Wordsworth. For me this poem creates a very ‘folky’
traditional story, Christmas music, good cheer, a crisp winter’s night etc I set it with that in mind, keeping to a traditional folk-like sound world.
One a Day for Five
Solo voice and piano
6.5 min
Five very short songs, both music and words written over five days. Subject matter very
much ‘day to day’, sometimes mundane; birds, garden, housework, shopping etc First performed on 21 January 2023 in Howgills, Letchworth garden City, by Helen Neeves Soprano and Mike Crowley Piano.
Walking from Arlesey
Torpor
Accidental Rewilding
It’s Saturday
Ikea!
Pan
Choir SSAATTBB plus solo flute part (suitable for any treble instrument)
2.5 min
Written to be performed directly before Ralph Vaughan Willliam’s Serenade to Music. The
text is taken from the poem ‘A Musical Instrument’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. First performed on 4 November 2022 at St Martin in the Fields, by the BBC Singers, with Ashley Grote - organ, conducted by Lionel Sow. Radio 3 broadcast on 10 November 2022.
Route Connections
double choir (with further divisi)
7 min
A choral inventory of my journey from home to Maida Vale Studios, encompassing both the banal everyday sights plus the more striking and well known landmarks. The music was written to give the listener and the performer a light hearted musical experience of travelling by bike and train; joyously highlighting various aspects of the journey. Premiered at St Paul’s Knightsbridge, 19 March 2025, BBC Singers conducted by Sofi Jeannin.
Speak of the North!
Choir SSAATTBB(BB)
6 min
A Setting of three contrasting poems, one by each of the Brontë sisters; descriptions of wintery weather and landscape. First performed 19 January 2023 at St Giles Cripplegate, by the BBC Singers, conducted by Sofi Jeannin. Radio 3 broadcast on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023.
The Bells
Upper voices in 5 parts, optional sleigh bells
1.5 min
Edgar Allen Poe’s words from his poem “The Bells” juxtaposed with Peirpont’s “Jingle Bells”. This was written as a thank you to soprano colleagues in the BBC Singers at the end of a pretty difficult year.
The Holy Night
Choir SSSAAATTTBB
3-4 min
Christmas carol with words by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I was drawn to this text
because of the easy simplicity of the narrative and the way it paints a picture of the Nativity. First
performance (and Radio 3 broadcast) on 22 December 2022, by the BBC Singers, conducted by
Sofi Jeannin at Temple Church London.
The Lent Lily
Choir - SSAATTBB, Organ or Brass Quintet
2.5 - 3 min
A setting of A E Housman’s poem about the Daffodil which he renames “The Lent Lily”. Although the text isn’t sacred, Housman alludes to Christianity with the repeated line ‘…and dies on Easter Day.’ referring to the brief daffodil season. The voices work antiphonally with the organ/brass, overlapping and echoing each other.
Three Folk Song Arrangements
4 part upper voices SSAA
6.5 min
Three Marian Motets
Choir SATB/SSATB
9 min
Suitable for liturgical use as well as the concert platform. I have used the opening plainchant of each text as a basis for the rest of the piece.
W Krainie Kołysanki
upper voices (divisi up to 6), children’s choir (divisi up to 3)
10 min
Commissioned by Radio France: traditional Polish lullabies (in Polish) woven together with original music to create a child’s dreamscape. Premiered at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris, 2 April 2024 sung by Le Choeur and La Maitrise de Radio France, conducted by Sofi Jeannin.
Wellerman
Choir SATB
2.5 min
Sea shanty arrangement, suitable for taking into an education setting, comes with simpler
options that can be taught to children as part of workshops.