Featured – Michael Higgins

View me, Lord

19 September 2023

SATB unaccompanied
Duration: 2.5 minutes | Difficulty: Easy – Moderately Difficult

With a text by Thomas Campion, View me, Lord is a tender prayer characterized by its sensitive text-setting. Each verse features a change in voicing, rhythm, and harmony, while the ever-changing metre provides a feeling of fluidity. The tension built throughout the work is finally resolved in the last chord, bringing this contemplative anthem to a peaceful close.

“Another piece that could well contribute to the structure of a concert is View me, Lord . . . Higgins’s version is a simple, homophonic account featuring contemporary harmony that won’t frighten the horses. The general effect is one of tenderness and warmth – exactly the words the composer himself uses at the top of the piece.”
Jeremy Jackman, Choir & Organ, February 2020

Three American Songs

19 September 2023

SATB (with divisions) and piano
Duration: 8 minutes | Difficulty: Moderately Difficult

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Higgins’s arrangements of three North-American traditional songs are sophisticated and beautiful, supported by well-crafted piano accompaniments. The first, ‘Bright morning stars’, is illuminated by a shimmering piano part with opportunities for a soloist or small group. Energy and bounce is abundant throughout the second, ‘Little wheel a-turnin’’, where the melody is passed around the voices and coloured with interesting harmonies. The last piece, ‘He’s gone away’, is a parting song between two lovers with flowing melodies and accompaniment, and ends on a note of anticipation.

Scarborough Fair

19 September 2023

SABar and piano
Duration: 2.5 minutes | Difficulty: Very Easy – Easy

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Higgins’ setting of this popular folk song is simple and wistful, particularly well-suited for children’s and youth choirs. With delicate quaver flourishes, the piano accompaniment flows gently alongside the vocal lines, creating suspensions that reflect the mysterious demands of the narrator. Originally published in The Oxford Book of Flexible Choral Songs ed. Bullard for three-part choir.

O salutaris Hostia

19 September 2023

SSATB unaccompanied
Duration: 3 minutes | Difficulty: Moderately Difficult

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In this sensitive choral arrangement of ‘Nimrod’ from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Michael Higgins sets the Eucharistic hymn ‘O salutaris Hostia’, written by St Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The familiar melody passes seamlessly between the voice parts, and Elgar’s lush, rich sound world is perfectly emulated by the choral textures Higgins has fashioned.