Duration: c.5′

Text: Setting of E.E. Cummings poem of the same name.

Themes: A child’s prayer, optimism, hope, dreaming, spring, sleep, death and rebirth, the seasons, snow and rain.

Musical content: The piece builds from simple chords into an intense 8 part texture with lots of shifting movement between the parts that serves to anchor the strong pulse and drive the piece towards its climax. The range is large – Sopranos 1 and 2 have a couple of top Bs and Bass 2 reaches down to low C sharp at one point.

Suitable for: Professional or able amateur choirs

now I lay (with everywhere around) was co-commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival and I Fagiolini Charitable Trust for I Fagiolini’s programme, ‘ReWilding The Waste Land’, 2021.The first performance was given by I Fagiolini and Voces8 on 14^th August 2021 under the direction of Robert Hollingworth at the Gresham Centre, as part of the Live from London Summer Festival.