My own setting of words from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Choir and Cello, has its origins in a group of solo motets (for voice and organ), written some years ago, setting passages from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. One of these, setting the Collect for Peace from Evensong, remained in my mind as I felt it was not sufficiently developed. When considering the concert, I decided to rework the piece, so I could include a setting of one of my favourite passages from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer.
Initially the cello simply states the main melody, which is then restated by the choir. Gradually the choir develops complex accompaniments to the melody, interrupted by the cello's more elaborate variations. Written after a period singing the music of John Tavener, it utilises a number of his techniques, with melodies appearing in parallel or in mirror inversions.
Robert Hugill