Annual List of Works: Welsh Music Information Center
Title
The Souls of the Righteous (Justorum Animae)
Composer
Name Geraint Lewis b.1958 Welsh c/o WMIC address above
Genre
Choral
Instrumentation
SATB and Organ
Year of composition
1992
Duration
8 minutes
Place of premiere performance
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
Date of premiere performance
1992-11-20
Performers
Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, conducted by John Scott with Andrew Lucas, organ
Score
Publisher: Aureus Publishing Limited, Castle Court, Castle-upon-Alun, St. Bride’s Major, Vale of Glamorgan CF32 0TN, Wales, UK or contact WMIC
URL: www.aureus.co.uk
E-mail: info@aureus.co.uk
Price: £3.95
Recording
Record company: Herald AV Publications, The Studio, 29 Alfred Road, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8ND, England
Title of Album: Caneuon Cymru, Welsh songs, hymns and anthems
URL: www.heraldav.co.uk (or available from WMIC)
Performers: National Youth Choir of Wales
Price: £10.00 from WMIC; RRP £12.00
Motivation
Composed for the Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of William Mathias, a close friend and associate of the composer.
Programme Note
A work of great lyrical and sensuous intensity, with an engaging symplicity which is anything but simplistic.
Composer Biography
Geraint Lewis was born in Cardiff in 1958 and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. From 1988 until 2001 he was Artistic Director at Nimbus Records and The Nimbus Foundation, was a member of The Arts Council of Wales and its Music Chairman from 1996 until April 2002 and remains a consultant to the restructured Council. From 1992 he has was also Artistic Director of the North Wales International Music Festival at St. Asaph Cathedral in succession to William Mathias. A frequent broadcaster on radio and television, Lewis has also written and lectured extensively on the music of Sir Michael Tippett, whose 80th birthday Tribute he edited in 1985.
As a composer he has written in many genres and was taught by Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr and Gerald Hendrie. In 1999 he wrote Afallon for Welsh National Opera to open The National Assembly for Wales and in 2000 composed his first opera, Culhwch ac Olwen, as a Millennium Festival Wales commission for the Criccieth Festival. He is currently writing a Piano Quintet inspired by David Hockney for PM Music Ensemble and a work in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at the request of Prince Charles for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Recent works include commissions for the Three Choirs, Presteigne and Swansea Festivals, two major sacred works for churches in the USA and a choral and orchestral work to be premiered in Munich.