A Prayer (2017)

for SATB choir, a cappella

A Prayer
CA$3.00
Quantity:
Add To Cart

Text: Richard Barnfield (1574-1620), adapted by the composer
Duration: 5 minutes
Difficulty: 3/4

Honorary Mention in the 2019 Composition Competition by Eastern Horizons (Halifax, NS).

First performed in Halifax by Eastern Horizons (Jack Bennett, dir.) in February 2020.

It is no surprise that faith and sexuality have a complex and strained relationship. As a queer religious man, this is a problem that I have tried to reconcile throughout my life and, of course, in my music. A Prayer approaches this reconciliation through the manipulation of text, adapting the unabashedly queer and sexual poetry of Richard Barnfield into an expression of religious faith. This is not intended as a blasphemous act, but a desire for faith and sexuality to find common ground.

Click here to see the complete score.

The audio below is from the first performance by Eastern Horizon (Jack Bennet, dir.) in February 2020.

Full Text


Long have I longed to see my Lord again,
still have I wished, but never could obtain it;
rather than all the world (if I might gain it)
would I desire my Lord’s sweet precious gain.

Yet in my soul I see Him every day,
see Him, and see His still stern countenance;
but ah, what is of long continuance,
where majesty and beauty bears the sway?

Sometimes, when I imagine that I see Him,
(as love is full of foolish fantasies)
weening to kiss His feet, as my love’s fees,
I feel but air: nothing but air to be Him.

Thus with Ixion, kiss I clouds in vain:
thus with Ixion, feel I endless pain.