A Cranmer Collect, a motet by David Matthews, will premiere on 4 October 2025 with the Ulster Consort conducted by Matthew Owens at St. Molua’s Church, Belfast. The 2-minute work for SATB chorus was commissioned by the Ulster Consort and Matthew Owens, through the generosity of Cameron Marshall.
Matthews’ motet sets the Collect for the eight Sunday after Trinity by Thomas Cranmer. Subtitled ‘Never-Failing Providence’, the text attests to the divine guidance and deliverance provided by God, protecting us from harm. Matthews complements the text with a tender, emotive setting, built around a simple falling melody and rich, enfolding harmonies.
The piece appears as part of the Consort’s major commissioning project The Cranmer Anthem Book, which aims to set all 88 of the Collects (or prayers) from The Book of Common Prayer, devised by Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556); the programme showcases other premieres from composers including Bob Chilcott, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Helen Grime, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, and Sir John Rutter.
On 24 August Robert Plane and Tim Horton premiered Matthews’ A Song for Barrie at the Presteigne Festival. The 4 ½-minute work for clarinet and piano is Matthews’ tribute to the late documentary maker Barrie Gavin, whose films have been acclaimed for their insights into key figures of twentieth and twenty-first century music, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Jonathan Harvey, and Colin Matthews.
Matthews became close friends over the last quarter-century through the Presteigne Festival; A Composer’s Landscape, Gavin’s documentary about Matthews that was over a decade in the making, was screened at the 2023 Festival. A Song for Barrie sketches Gavin’s name with its initial motif, and, as Matthews puts it, “tries to capture something of Barrie’s incomparably vital spirit, and its overall mood is happy rather than sad.”