The collection of pieces that comprises the Inventions and Sinfonias have resulted in my longest piece to date and the most concentrated spell of focussing on one instrument since my Transfiguration project for piano (2021-22). The work takes Bach’s monumental work of the same title as its inspiration, though the great master’s influence on the work is more formal and structural than anything musical or artistic. Bach’s work was designed for his students to learn two and three-part contrapuntal keyboard music in a creative and interesting way, fashioned from his own style of composition. Bach composed the two-part (Inventions) and three-part (Sinfonias) in ascending keys from those widely used in the period (eight major and seven minor keys). These two facets (the pedagogical and the tonal) are preserved in my Inventions and Sinfonias, mirroring the key structure of Bach’s and aiming these pieces at good players still on their instrumental learning journey.

My fifth setting of the Evening Service is the most concentrated to date, not only in terms of the reduced performing means, but also the material and themes used within. The mood of the work is one of sustained gentleness, but with moments of passion and introspection as befits these well-known texts.

There have been many simple, prayerful settings of these heartfelt words and my offering is in a similar vein with more than a nod to the pieces by Walford Davies, Howells and Rutter.