When David Heard

This piece, for unaccompanied choir and three solo voices, was written for the Norwegian chamber choir Kor Vest and was first performed as part of the 2012 Bergen Festival, conducted by Simon Halsey. The work is respectfully intended to serve as a memorial to the victims of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utoya.

It sets the well-known and intense passage from 2 Samuel and intersperses it with a verse from Psalm 39: "Lord, let me know mine end", scored for three solo voices. The work opens with a declamatory outpouring of grief of a Father at the sight of his dead son. Then follow contrasting passages which switch rapidly between contemplative and more dramatic material, reflecting the mood of the two texts and playing out the musical narrative. After a climactic expression of "Absolon! Would God I have died for thee", the piece gradually fades over repeated invocations of the Psalm, leaving a solo tenor voice hanging in the air.