NICK ELWOOD - a border's composer

I was composing the first draft of what became the Coronation Sanctus when Queen Elizabeth passed away on the 8th of September 2022. The Sanctus was one of the movements from my creative response to the traumatic events of COVID-19, Requiem for a Pandemic. This work began in May 2020 and was written for full choir, organ and trumpet. The work is dedicated to King Charles.

Requiems are sombre but the Sanctus is usually an upbeat and festive movement. I felt the connection between a deceased monarch and the forthcoming coronation of a new monarch, both of whom had lived through the traumas of COVID-19, significant. The Sanctus, now the Coronation Sanctus remains part of the Requiem for a Pandemic but also exists as a stand-alone piece in numerous versions. Fugal in structure, it embodies both a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s life, her son’s ascension to the throne and society’s emergence from the pandemic. 

Whenever I write music that contains non-functional harmony critics accuse me of ‘being clever.’ In reality, it is functional harmony that is ‘clever.’ Fugues are the most difficult form of harmony with which I struggle. The harmonic rules are incredibly restrictive and the relation of one part to another is claustrophobic. With non-functional harmony, there is much more freedom. 

When the 'Skins' (5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards) Colonel-in-Chief, King Leopold III, died in 1983, Prince Charles succeeded him as our Colonel in Chief. I played for Prince Charles on numerous occasions.  Coronation Sanctus published by Larch Music has also published a number of my works, including my First Symphony, The Hellenic.  

The Coronation Sanctus was first performed by the organist Malcolm Sim of Glasgow Cathedral, in 1923 at the Parish Church in Berwick upon Tweed. The work has also been scored for:

SATB. Organ and trumpet (original setting)

Organ and trumpet

Piano and trumpet

Concert Band  

The Coronation Sanctis is pending publication with Larch Music. 

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The coastline of Northumbria is a mutating panorama of beauty, mystery, power, calm, ferocity, and peace. A whole range of factors in flux combine to create divergent coastal atmospheres. I chose the French horn to convey these broad-ranging coastal moods. The suite comprises four movements and the work is dedicated to the horn player, Ian Kille. 

The first movement is entitled Haar. Haar is a cold fog which is typical on the north-eastern coast of Northumbria, between September and April. It is caused when a warm layer of air sits above a cold layer. The haar often drifts towards the coast and is mysterious and eerie. It can arrive and disappear quickly. Although Berwick upon Tweed has a lighthouse, it is no longer functional. However, in bad weather, the Longstone Lighthouse, to the south, still flashes its light out to sea. Can you imagine the atmosphere created in days of old when Berwick’s lighthouse both flashed and its fog horns wailed along with those of Longstone? This is the mood I try to capture in the first movement. 

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