Written for a wedding in 2006 Love is beautiful indeed sets an extraordinary poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806?61) part of the tenth sonnet in Sonnets from the Portuguese. It begins unaccompanied with warm harmony but quickly moves to reflect the words ?Fire is bright?and love is fire? at which point the organ enters strongly to accompany the deeply impassioned central section before the mood relaxes and the piece returns to the quiet reflection of the opening. Suitable for intermediate choirs this setting of a secular text is an exciting and welcome addition to the repertoire ofmusic taking love as its theme.

Utilizing unison lines in an easy Beatles Groove this is a wonderful vocal jazz setting for intermediate to early advanced vocal jazz choirs. Young scat singers will be able to feel the chord changes in this familiar song while piano players will have room to stretch out over these more standard changes.

from Three Songs of Love-Originally part of David Bednall’s Three Songs of Love the short section which sets W B Yeats’ poem The Cloths of Heaven (‘Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths’) is here presented as a separate octavo publication.The warmth and passion of the text is portrayed in the highly expressive music which is tied very closely to the words with lavish harmonies presented in homophony with frequent divisi. This song like the complete Three Songs of Love will present a mild challenge to intermediate choirs but it is sure to be pleasing to both singers and audiences and an excellent addition to the contemporary repertoire.