A Hymn to the Thames was commissioned by James Turnbull and the Music Director of the St Paul’s Sinfonia, Andrew Morley. It was begun in 2019 and completed in 2020.

The four movements play continuously and depict the course of the River Thames from its Cotswold source to the North Sea.The solo oboe represents both a wanderer along the river path and the spirit of the river. The pitch centres of the movements spell out the upper-case musical letters as follows: tHAmES (B natural, A, E and E flat), so that the river’s name is projected across the whole work. In addition, the musical letters in the names James Turnbull, Andrew Morley and my wife,Teresa Cahill (born in Maidenhead and brought up by the river in Rotherhithe) are entwined in various guises.

The first movement grows from the depths, the soloist entering in a fanfare-like manner, gradually becoming more lyrical and breaking into the second movement’s dance as the river gathers momentum. The third movement is slow and sustained and, geographically, represents the river flowing through Oxford.The music is based on the well-known In Nomine ‘head motif ’ from the Gloria Tibi Trinitas mass by the early Tudor composer, John Taverner, who was the first Director of Music at Christ Church, Oxford (when it was Cardinal College). The orchestra provides a screen or veil around which the soloist dreams and muses. This leads directly into the final movement symbolising the increasing power and energy of the river as it flows towards the estuary. Towards the close, the woodwind are heard playing O Nata Lux (originally for a cappella choir) by the great Tudor composer, Thomas Tallis who, with his wife, Joan, is buried in St Alfege’s, Greenwich. The upper strings play a halo of harmonics while the lower strings continue the water’s ceaseless flow.The soloist takes this up, leading to the close, where the oboe/wanderer rises in a gesture perhaps pointing to continuity and the future as the orchestra fades once more into the depths as the river meets the sea.