full of sweet days was commissioned by Presteigne Festival, with kind support from Tŷ Cerdd, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and National Lottery.

Written specifically for the Choir of Royal Holloway and their conductor, Rupert Gough, two of the three Herbert settings will be premiered on 30 August 2021 at Priory Church, Leominster, as part of the 2021 Presteigne Festival

Initial thoughts

Nestled in the age of Shakespeare and Milton is the literary stalwart George Herbert, poet, clergyman, and oft forgotten as Welsh-born (born in Montgomery in 1593). The vivid poetry of Herbert has been something I have come back to as composer over the years, not least because of the sheer amount of existing settings I have sung in the past - Vaughan Williams, Britten, Rubbra, Weir, to name a few. Building on a previous setting of Herbert's Love(commonly known as 'Love bade me welcome'), written in 2018 on the occasion of the marriage of dear friends, Cathy and Andrew Martin, it has been a special moment for me to return to vivd lyricism within Herbert.

For full information about this new work, please visit this dedicated webpage.