Three Motets

Born in Chester in 1947, Howard Skempton has worked as a composer, accordionist, and music publisher. Renowned for the distinctive clarity of his musical language, he has composed over 300 pieces, many of which are miniatures for solo piano or accordion. His orchestral and instrumental works have been recorded by, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Bash. In recent years, Skempton has concentrated increasingly on writing vocal and choral music; his choral commissions include works for the BBC Singers and the Belfast Philharmonic Society. He is currently an Honorary Professor of Music at De Montfort University.

Three Motets takes three well-known motet texts and sets them in Skempton's characteristic choral idiom - syllabic, entirely homophonic, sensitive to the meter of text, warm harmonies - and produces a series of subtle, rather inward settings for SATB voices that wander gently but purposefully through a gamut of keys to some surprising destinations.

• Locus iste ; Beati quorum via ; Ave Virgo sanctissima