Before I get too full of self-importance, I need to confess that having a piece of organ music written specially for me was most undeserving – I simply won a competition on Twitter. Composer Thomas Morgan celebrated getting to 300 Twitter followers last year by offering to write something for a lucky follower, and I got in first. It’s still rather good, though, to have the privilege of giving the first performance of a work.
We had an enjoyable exchange of emails on what the piece should be. Something short and meditative to play during Communion I said, about CertRCO level in difficulty? – Perhaps along the lines of the Elgar Vesper Voluntaries? suggested Thomas. In the end the final piece most resembles the Intermezzo from the Vesper Voluntaries: Thomas has used 1 Corinthians Behold I shew you a mystery… as the starting point, and and the piece ends on an appropriate anticipatory note.
A world premiere then, this Sunday, at my church. It will be interesting to see what my congregation makes of Thomas’s sound world.
Thomas Morgan is a composer, conductor and organist based in South Wales. He studied music at the University of Salford with David King and Peter Graham, and went on to study composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Robert Spearing, followed by postgraduate study in choral conducting with Simon Halsey and Adrian Partington. You can hear more of his compositions on SoundCloud. Score Exchange has a catalogue of scores. And, of course, you can follow him on Twitter! @tmorgancomposer
