Growing up in South Yorkshire mining country, Jamie W. Hall’s entire childhood went by without him ever encountering choral music.
Indeed, his was a landscape entirely without classical music – aside from unavoidable encounters with roaming brass bands – and he spent (or perhaps misspent) his youth wringing pleasure from stage musicals.
It wasn’t until he attended university in the long shadow of a cathedral spire that he found himself thrust into choral singing, and – from the very opening of Tallis’ O Nata Lux – he fell completely in love.
His compositional career didn’t begin until much later when, months into his tenure as a baritone with the BBC Singers, he found himself so inspired by the works of one particular contemporary composer that he was determined to try his own hand.
More than a decade on, Jamie’s choral music draws deeply on his experience as a professional singer with evident craftsmanship and a flair for setting text. He shows an intense understanding of the workings of the human voice and its potential for tonal colour and emotional expression, and his often complex harmonic language (stemming from years steeped in the most complex of contemporary choral scores) is tempered by his singer’s instinct for the linear, and an even more pressing need for there always to be beauty in vocal music.
The diversity of his writing encompasses pieces written for professionals and well as for children, and his recent series of three-part (SAB) sacred works, for church choirs with limited numbers, demonstrates his commitment to community music making.
Through his compositions ‘Sleep, My Jesu’ and ‘O Nata Lux’ , and via his widely appreciated social media presence, Jamie’s Choirs Against Cancer project has raised over £20,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Many of his works are available through Novello, Banks Music Publications and Chichester Music Press.
His works have been recorded for commercial release, broadcast on radio and television throughout the world, and have been performed by such ensembles as ORA, Sonoro, The Choir of HM Tower of London, King’s Junior Voices, Genesis Sixteen, The Queen’s Six, and the BBC Singers.
Forthcoming projects include a 20-minute work for the BBC Singers entitled ‘Sing My Name’, along with ‘Aardvark Carol’, a collaboration with the poets of Great Chishill, which will be performed this Christmas by the professional ensemble Cor Meum. His new set of Preces & Responses will be given their first performance on BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong on 2nd October.
Works
Concert Works
Sing My Name – for solo high voice and mixed chorus. Text by Marianne L.A. James. (Also available for high voice and piano)
To Every Thing – for unaccompanied SATB choir. Text by Reuben Thomas
Ithaka Recalled – for unaccompanied SATB choir. Text by Reuben Thomas
Curiouser & Curiouser! – for upper voices and piano
Carols
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
Christmas Bells – 2 equal voices + piano
In the Bleak Midwinter – 2 equal voices + piano
Adam Lay Y’bounden
Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh
Aardvark Carol
Works for Children
Curiouser & Curiouser! – for upper voices and piano
Soul’s Flight – for upper voices and piano
In the Bleak Midwinter – 2 equal voices + piano
Hodie! – 2 equal voices + piano
Song
Dust of Snow – for Soprano and Piano
Had I This Hour – for Baritone and Piano (also in versions for high voice, and low voice)
Sacred
The Great Chishill Motets Volume One: Holy Week to Easter – for SAB choir
The Great Chishill Motets Volume Two: Advent to Candlemas – for SAB choir
Ave Maria
Ubi Caritas
Preces & Responses – for the BBC Singers, published by Encore.
Hymns