Mid-Atlantic

Notes

In 2009 I was commissioned by the law firm Hill Dickinson to write a new work for its bicentenary celebrations. Asked to allude to something to do with the company itself, perhaps an event in its history, I lit upon the sinking of the Titanic in 1912; Hill Dickinson represented the Titanic’s owners, the White Star Line, after its sinking. I decided to build the piece around the hymn tune Nearer My God To Thee, which by some accounts was the last tune played by the band on the Titanic before it sank. The piece is structured so that fragments of the tune are revealed in stages. I’ve also worked into it a quote from a piece of church music I wrote earlier in 2010, The Malmesbury Responses.