‘A Quaker Trilogy’ was commissioned by the Micklegate Singers and their director Nicholas Carter, after Julian Pattison had the idea that setting to music words by William Penn, often read at Quaker memorial meetings, might provide inspiration to young composers at the beginning of their careers. The composers were sought out from music students at the University of York. 

Julian Pattison writes (July 2023):

‘Each piece has been loved by the choir and audiences for the distinctive musical world that it creates. Each is haunting in its own way.

‘They are pieces that give voice to grief without the maudlin and sometimes false emotions that might come from a mass or the hymn singing at a funeral in a secular age, where overtly Christian words don't quite seem to fit with the complex emotions felt inside. The pieces also provide comfort and consolation through their beauty and their reminder to us that the departed live within us still. They remind us too, perhaps, that religious belief and spirituality are not necessarily the same thing.’

 

Commissioned by The Micklegate Singers

First performance of the complete trilogy given by The Micklegate Singers, on 23rd March 2024, at St. Lawrence's Church, Lawrence Street, York YO10 3WP