Joe Bates
  • News
  • Music
    • Full List
    • Large Ensemble >
      • Muted The Night
    • Small Ensemble >
      • Ink, Colour And Gold On Paper
      • Wound Honey
      • Straight Line Through A Landscape
      • Two Animals
      • Nocturne
      • Lain Lines
      • Us Alone
      • A Noise So Loud
    • Solo >
      • Phasmid
      • Odd Coils
      • Sparrow
      • Street Through A Window
      • Two Animals
      • Flim Flam
    • Vocal >
      • Absence
      • The Hazelnut
      • Some Parts of Us
      • Now Is A Long Time
      • Cataracts
      • Ceasing
      • Hildegard
  • Recordings
  • About
  • Teaching
  • Filthy Lucre
  • Research
    • The Hyasynth
  • Upcoming Dates

Music

To get an overview of my music, you could start with my solo works: my EP, Flim Flam, or my piece for double bass, Sparrow. From there, you could check out my work for choir, Ceasing, or my works for small ensemble, A Noise So Loud or Us Alone. 

Much of my work is challenging to perform, but some is easier. The following music might be suitable for amateurs, students or for settings with limited rehearsal time: Two Animals (for open ensemble), Absence (SSATB), The Hazelnut (SATB), Some Parts of Us (SATB divisi), Cataracts (soprano, piano), Odd Coils Movement 2 (guitar), Street Through A Window Movement 3 (harp).

Large Ensemble


Muted The Night (2019)

"Music is feeling, then, not sound; 
And thus it is that what I feel, 
Here in this room, desiring you, 

Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, 
Is music." (Wallace Stevens, Peter Quince at the Clavier)
4'. For orchestra.
Full details
Score
​
Video

Small Ensemble

Ink, Colour And Gold On Paper

A piece about Mughal illuminated manuscripts.
13'. For fl., hn., vln., vc., and theorbo.
Full details
 

Wound Honey

​Four coagulations for trio.
8'. For clarinet trio.
​Full details

Straight Line Through A Landscape (2022)
A ceremony for siphoned demijohns.
18'. For flute, violin, cello, percussion.
​Full details
Score

Two Animals (2021)

A meditation for ensemble, based on the piece of the same name for solo accordion.
5'. For any combination of 6 or more instruments.
​Full details
Score

Nocturne (2021)

A piece of night music with warped electronic echoes.
6'. For piano, double bass, percussion and live electronics.
​Full details
Score

Lain Lines (2020)

A piece for accelerating string quartet.
4'. For string quartet.
​Full details
Score
​Video

Us Alone (2018)

A piece about failure, written for Zoe Martlew. A partner piece for Horatiu Radulescu's Intimate Rituals.
18'. For cello and 2 Sound Icons; or cello and electronics.
Full details

Score
Recording


A Noise So Loud (2017)

A piano quartet that gets happier as it goes along. 
16', with an excerptible movement. For Piano Quartet.
Full details
Score
​Recording
​
Video

Vocal


Absence (2022)

A setting of a Quaker funerary text by William Penn.
5'. For choir.
​Full details

The Hazelnut (2020)

A song about seeing all of creation in a ball the size of a hazelnut. Text by Julian of Norwich.
5'. For choir.
​Full details
Score
​
Recording

Now Is A Long Time (2020)

A song about time in isolation.
6'. For choir.
​Full details
Score
​
Recording

Some Parts of Us (2020)

A song about losing friends.
5'. For choir.
​Full details
​

Cataracts (2020)

A song about blindness and waterfalls.
4'. For soprano and piano.
Full details
Score

Ceasing (2019)

A song about death.
16'. For choir and live electronics.
Full details
Score
Recording
Video

Hildegard (2018)

A setting of Hildegard of Bingen's imaginary language for a film by Paul Vernon.
10'30". For synths, soprano and film, or soprano and electronics.
Full details
Score
​Film

Solo


Phasmid (2022)

A cryptid for solo violin.
6'.
​Full details.
Score

Odd Coils (2022)

A suite for guitar, in four genres.
10', with four excerptible movements.
Full details
Score

Sparrow (2020)

A virtuosic tune for double bass.
9'. For solo double, scordatura.
Full details.
Score
​
Recording

Street Through A Window (2020)

A suite of dusty pieces for muted, detuned harp.
12', with four excerptible movements. For solo harp.
Full details.
Score

Two Animals (2020)

A meditation for singing accordionist. 
5'. 
Full details
Score
Video

Flim Flam EP (2018)

A suite for synthesisers about desire at a remove.
28'. For solo electronics.
​Full details
Score
Recording
All photographs by Ilme Vysniauskaite
  • News
  • Music
    • Full List
    • Large Ensemble >
      • Muted The Night
    • Small Ensemble >
      • Ink, Colour And Gold On Paper
      • Wound Honey
      • Straight Line Through A Landscape
      • Two Animals
      • Nocturne
      • Lain Lines
      • Us Alone
      • A Noise So Loud
    • Solo >
      • Phasmid
      • Odd Coils
      • Sparrow
      • Street Through A Window
      • Two Animals
      • Flim Flam
    • Vocal >
      • Absence
      • The Hazelnut
      • Some Parts of Us
      • Now Is A Long Time
      • Cataracts
      • Ceasing
      • Hildegard
  • Recordings
  • About
  • Teaching
  • Filthy Lucre
  • Research
    • The Hyasynth
  • Upcoming Dates