In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God.
The same was in the beginning with God
and the Word was God.
All things were made through Him
and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
The same came for a witness
to bear witness of the light
that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light,

that lighteth every man coming into the world.
He was in the world
and the world made by Him knew Him not.
He came unto His own
and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him
to them He gave the right to become children of God
Even to them that believe on His name,
Which were born not of blood
Nor of the will of the flesh
Nor of the will of man,
But were born of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,
Full of grace and truth.

Our Father God Thy name we praise
to Thee our song addressing,
and joyfully our voices raise,
Thy faithfulness confessing.
The power is Thine, O Lord divine,
The Kingdom and the rule are Thine!
O grant us, Lord, Thy blessing.

O holy Lord,
O Son of God,
Almighty Sov'reign,
Lamb of God:
O Lord, our God,
We praise and bless Thy holy name!

I first thought of setting the opening of John's gospel to music as far back as 1979, while my wife and I were still living in our first house. In those days I had a little old upright piano and that was it. I worked on and off at it, not getting very far until the local Baptist Church, of which I was a member, asked me to write something to celebrate the opening of a new suite of halls. So I finished the work off at speed and it was duly performed at the evening service on Sunday 16 November 1986. The original scoring was very much constrained by the limited number of musicians in the church and even then we had to import Sue Hardwick (flute) because our resident flautist didn't want to get involved. Various folk thought that it wouldn't work, only to express surprise when in fact it did!

In 2012 I revised it, in part because I recognised that there were some things I could have done better but mainly to add in the instruments that I'd have liked to have had in 1986. It is an amazingly eclectic work from just about every point of view, with the Indian modalities adding a decidedly exotic edge to it.

The idea of including a chorale didn't occur to me until my wife and I attended a performance of a Passion Play in Thiersee bei Kufstein, Austria. One of the congregational hymns, Laßt uns erheben Herz und Stimm, had such a glorious melody that I asked the Burgermeister of the town for permission to use it. He agreed readily. Even so and despite the Lutheran origins of the melody, the exotic flavour of the music continues through the chorale, maintaining musical coherence with the rest of the music.

It's a work of which I'm proud; and more recent conversations with three of the musicians involved in 1986 have convinced me that they have reason to be proud of it also.