Stephen Harrap was born in Portsmouth in 1952 and studied at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre. As a conductor, he has collaborated with many leading musicians and ensembles, including Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the London Sinfonietta, and the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome; he has also worked at prominent opera houses, including Covent Garden, Paris, and Salzburg. Since 1995 he has focused on the composition and performance of his own choral and orchestral works, which have been premiered at numerous venues and festivals across Europe.

Harrap's approach is more innovative [than David Jepson's Befriend me] musically and in his treatment of the text, where the 'Veni Creator Spiritus' hymn is sung by tenors to the familiar plainchant (although starting at a different pitch for each verse), whilst SSABB sing a passage as if in commentary from John Donne's 'A Litany'. The dramatic setting of the Donne contrasts with the plainchant, although all come together for a final Amen in a radiant F sharp major.