The Letter (2018)

for SATB (divisi) choir, a cappella

Published by Cypress Choral Music
Visit their website below to see a
persual score & purchase copies!

Text: Adapted by the composer from UK Parliamentary transcripts and excerpts from Don Leon (attrib. Lord Byron)
Duration: 3 minutes
Difficulty: 3/4

Commissioned by Senate House Library for their 2018 exhibition, Queer Between the Covers. Composed in residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with the assistance of Uģis Prauliņš and Michael Zaugg, and workshopped by Pro Coro Canada. First performed in London, UK by The Fourth Choir (Dominic Ellis-Peckham, dir.) in May 2018. First Canadian performance in Halifax by Eastern Horizon (Jack Bennet, dir.) in June 2018. First European performance in Stockholm, Sweden by Voces Nordicae (Lone Larsen, dir.) in April 2022.

The Letter is the final movement from I am like many, commissioned by Senate House Library in London. I was tasked with creating a choral work using materials from their exhibition of queer texts, and it seemed to me that their collection centred around a single moment in time: the Parliamentary debates on the Wolfenden Report in 1958, representing the first significant (if initially unsuccessful) steps towards the legalisation of homosexuality in Britain. During these debates, an MP took the floor to read a letter he had received from an anonymous gay man. These words, pleading for compassion, have been combined with words from the poem “Don Leon”, attributed to Lord Byron, which argued in support of queer love more than a century earlier.

NOTE: To perform the complete “I am like many”, you can purchase the first 3 movements at a reduced rate here, then order the “The Letter” directly from Cypress Choral Music above.

The audio below is the commercial EP recording by The Fourth Choir.re

Full Text

The text of “I am like many” was compiled by the composer, largely based on contemporary newspaper reports & transcripts from British Parliament. Additional lines are incorporated from the 19th c. poem “Don Leon” (attributed to Lord Byron), which are set in italics below.


People have no idea of the life of fear and dread we live.
I want them to look upon this debate
with kindness and sympathy, and think,
‘There, but for the grace of God, go I.’

Love, love it was, that made my eyes delight
To have his person ever in my sight.

I do not pretend that I am good
but I am like many.