When David heard (2025)

‚When David Heard‘ takes as its text one single, devastating sentence from the King James Bible. A popular choice from 16th century composers Thomas Tomkins and Thomas Weelkes, right up to composers of today, the work explores the sense of extreme grief felt so deeply by King David. In this setting, the initially quiet writing passing between upper and lower voices resolves in a strong block of homophonic writing on a repeated „Absalom“, the work closing with tenor solo and a solitary soprano soloist on the final disbelieving „my son“. Freddy Ireland-Rose, son of Helen Ireland and Gregory Rose, tragically died in
September 2024 at the age of 30. He was a talented composer of electronic tracks, mainly for rappers, and fortunately left us with many of these tracks. I am using small samples of these in my compositions dedicated to his memory, including a Nunc Dimittis I composed for his funeral in October 2024.
Gregory Rose, 25.01.2025