What is it?

I Heard Your Voice is basically my Christian conversion testimony in music. It is one of a small collection of songs, which I wrote in 1991-92, for a young singer who was thinking of appearing at the Greenbelt Festival in England. I guess it could be described as folk-rock, having elements of Romanian folk music (in the form of two cimbaloms) and Renaissance dance music but in a rock setting. I've never bothered to score it out, but if anyone were to be interested, I'd be happy to do so. The girl for whom I wrote this felt comfortable singing low notes but on balance it probably sounds better sung by a tenor, as it is in the recording beolow.

I heard your voice at night
Say, "Dearest child, it's time you saw the light.
Come, kneel before my throne,
Accept that I'd have died for you alone."
You called me in my darkest hour
In spite of where I was and you gave me
Ears to hear and eyes to see
And a heart overflowing with your love.

I felt you touch my soul
And I knew then that you could make me whole.
I gave myself to you
And with the dawning you had made me new.
Your morning radiance in my life
Was plain for all to see, for you gave me
Ears to hear and eyes to see
And a heart overflowing with your love.

I've come to know you well
I love you so much more than words can tell
You reach into my heart
Convincing me that we will never part.
I lift my hands and worship you
I'll sing my song of praise, for you give me
Ears to hear and eyes to see
And a heart overflowing with your love.
Fill me with your love! (x3)

I started at university in the autumn of 1974, which feels to me now impossibly long ago. During my first year I felt pretty lonely and I received the cold shoulder from two girls to whom I felt attracted. Come the start of my second year, I felt confused. One evening I found myself sitting on the floor of a bar, between two lovely people (Gareth P and Jenny G). They thought I could do with some prayer, so they took me back to the room of another student, Edwin S. I had drunk rather too much and while I repeated the prayers, I did so more to get quickly back to bed than out of any real sense of commitment. The very last thing that I expected was that God would take me at my word: but he did.

The next morning, people who had no knowledge of what had happened the previous evening told me that I was a changed person. I began to realise that God had in effect poked me in the ribs and said, "Oi, you, listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

So when I was compiling a set of songs for young Sarah H possibly to sing at Greenbelt, I decided that it was time to set this testimony to music. I was working in northeast Romania at the time (winter 1992) and I remember having the song on an old portable tape recorder. A Ukrainian colleague, Yunona V, was entranced by the song, which made me realise that perhaps it might be a little better that I had imagined. Back in Bucharest, my colleague Grațiela M wrote to me simply, "Ascult muzica ta în fiecare zi la servici" ("I listen to your music every day at work"). Revisiting it after so many years, I realise that it is not only my testimony but also emblematic of a certain period in my life, hence putting it on this website.