Home

Chris Hutchings is a composer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His choral works have won several awards and had worldwide performances and broadcasts.

Resources and new music for choirs who are passionate about the climate: #choirsforclimate
Free music to fight for refugees and against racism: #choirsagainstracism

Recordings on SoundCloud  | Videos on YouTube“To The Mountain” on Bandcamp | Linktr.ee
Scores to buy: MusicSpoke | SheetMusicPlus | SheetMusicDirect

Music by choir type: Easy SATB | Medium SATB | Difficult SATB | SATB accompanied | Children | SABar | Upper voices | Lower voices

Recent news

March 2024

I’m going to Finland at the end of April to hear “Let’s Change The Rules – Choirs For Ecocide Law” (Musiikkitalo Concert Hall, Helsinki, 6-8pm on 27th April). The Choirs For Ecocide Law Project is a group effort which I’m very proud to be a part of (along with Simon Marainen, Kevin Fox, Federico Trindade, Astrid Vang-Pedersen, Merzi Rajala, Peder Karlsson, Genevieve Andersen, Moira Smiley, and Kirsi Kaunismäki-Suhonen) and my piece “The Rules” will be performed (plus a reprise of it later in the concert) by a choir of a thousand people! I’m still not quite sure I believe this is happening. If anyone who reads this site is in Finland and wants to join me there, let me know!

Also just finished another new piece – a setting of “Easter” (George Herbert) – read the poem here and see a sample page. If you’d like to see the full version, email me. It’s for choir and organ – the choir can be anything from a unison group (range of melody is Bb-Eb; choir can be upper voices, lower voices, or mixed) to a full SATB choir. About 75% of it is unison choir, and the end has optional divisi in up to six parts.

February 2024

Edinburgh Composers’ Choir Workshop: On Sunday 25th February, Lindsey Cotter (director of Pitchcraft) and I ran a composers’ choir workshop where we read through and recorded six new pieces. If you’d like to hear the recordings, send me an email – I’ll add public links here when I get them from the composers. If you’d like to be involved in the next one, email me to be added to the list.

“No Man Is An Island” was sung by the choir of St George’s Beckenham, London, on 11th February 2024.

“Animals”, with words by Brian Bilston, now has a recording from Edge Chamber Choir! It’s for 1-2 part choir with piano (ideal for school choirs but also suitable for adults) and the score can be downloaded for free here (Creative Commons licensed). Listen below:

January 2024

Happy New Year to all! Here’s the first piece of 2024, a 2-part setting of Adam Lay Ybounden for your next service of 9 Lessons & Carols (hey, some people do plan that far in advance). Suitable for SA, TB or mixed choirs.

“Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” is now available on MusicSpoke (SATB choir, somewhat tricky, but no divisi).

“Carmina Gadelica”, my set of three short sacred pieces for three-part choirs, is now available to buy online again! Listen below (ATB versions recorded by Matthew Curtis of Choraltracks).

SheetMusicDirect links to purchase:
God To Enfold Me (ATB) | Come I This Day (ATB) | The Peace Of God (ATB)
God To Enfold Me (SABar) | Come I This Day (SABar) | The Peace Of God (SABar)
SheetMusicPlus links:
God To Enfold Me (SABar) | Come I This Day (SABar) | The Peace Of God (SABar)
(ATB links coming soon)

December 2023

A few winter performances of my music:

Calton Consort sang my setting of “Balulalow” (along with Britten’s “A Boy Was Born”, Tamsin Jones‘ “Noel, verbum caro factum est”, Kerensa Briggs’ “A Tender Shoot”, and works by Howells and Warlock) in our concert on 9th December in Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh. We also sang “Balulalow” at the Scottish Parliament’s carol service on the 20th.

St Cuthbert’s Church on Princes Street, Edinburgh, will be including “Hush My Dear” in their Christmas carol service on 17th December – thanks to Graham and the choir! And it will also be in Greyfriars Kirk’s carol service on Christmas Eve.

The Garrick Singers also sang “Welcome Carol” from #ChoirsAgainstRacism in Hereford on 14th and 15th December – thank you Esther and choir!

And if you’re looking for something for your choir to do next year – have a look at Choirs for Ecocide Law! This is a 60-minute programme of music for a better world, campaigning for an international law to prevent the destruction of nature, and it’s free to download (includes “The Rules” which you can hear in the Choirs For Climate concert from March below, and a reprise of it).

If you know of any other choirs performing my works, please send me details – it’s always good to hear about performances.

November 2023

My new piece for Remembrance, “Tell Them Of Us”, was premiered on 11th November in Washington DC by Laetare Music. The UK premiere was given at Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, during our Remembrance Day service, starting at 10.30am on 12th November: click here to watch online.

Sheffield Chorale performed “The Kindness of Strangers” (words by Brian Bilston) and “No Man Is An Island” (words by John Donne) in their concert “Chiaroscuro” on 18th November.

September 2023

New #ChoirsForClimate piece: WARNING (any voices, up to 11 parts) – a pair of partnered rounds about our lifestyle and the resulting impact on the climate. Group 1 sings a round in five parts, group 2 sings a round in six parts, and they both work together. Singers can move between the groups. Hear a sample recording and download the score for free (Creative Commons licensed).

August 2023

The recording of “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” from the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music is now available! Click here to listen – it’s a really excellent performance by the Choral Scholars of St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, conducted by Alastair Carey. It’s for SATB without divisi, medium difficulty, about two and a half minutes – click here for a preview score. It would be suitable for almost any church service and for most concert settings. Available on MusicSpoke soon, email me for details in the meantime.

A new piece, “Tell Them Of Us”, a short (1min30) and very easy 2-part setting suitable for Remembrance or Veterans’ Day ceremonies – pay-what-you-want, will suit any group who can sing in 2 parts. Here’s a recording of me singing it (multitracked) – offers of better recordings gratefully received!

July 2023

I’ve just finished two new #ChoirsForClimate pieces: “If The World Were Ours”, a song about planning for the future for flexible three-part choir (thank you to everyone who came to our come-and-sing session in June to premiere it!) and “rising” for SATB choir and soloists (words by Ariel Francisco), a piece about sea levels but also about ignoring the warnings and signs of climate change. See everything I’ve written for #ChoirsForClimate here.

“Be Thou A Bright Flame” was a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir’s call for scores! Still awaiting a world premiere – view the score here (2 pages) and listen on SoundCloud. It’s for SATB without divisi and would be a suitable short concert item, or an anthem/introit/motet for many church occasions.

Heep Yunn High School choir performed “The Beach” (SSSSAAAA version) in Kowloon on Thursday 22nd June, and at the World Choir Games in South Korea in July 2023. Hear it on SoundCloud or watch on YouTube.

I took part in the launch of Scotland’s creative degrowth network, advocating for a less growth-obsessed economy. Watch the recording on YouTube.

May 2023

“Send Lazarus” was sung in Sea Change Chorale‘s concert in Portland, Maine, on 20th May; and by a completely different choir the next day, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, Ohio, on 21st May in their Hymn Festival led by guest organist Bruce Neswick. Thank you to Ruth Anderson, Director of Music Ministries, for including the piece! Click here to download the concert flyer.

“Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” was performed as part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music at St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, in their evening service at 6pm on Sunday 21st May.

April 2023

“Let Them Not Say” was performed at St Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington DC in their “Earth Day Lessons and Carols” on Sunday 23rd, 7.30pm-9pm. Many thanks to Tom Stehle and the choir! You can watch the entire service here. (“Let Them Not Say” starts at 1:35:45 but everything is worth listening to – also includes Gregorian chant, well-known American hymns and spirituals, Jonathan Dove’s “Seek Him That Maketh The Seven Stars”, and music by Hildegard von Bingen.)

Choirs For Ecocide Law launched with a concert in Jyväskylä, Finland, on 15th April! There was also a session on the Choirs For Ecocide Law project at the World Choir Symposium in Istanbul, Turkey, on 26th April. The pieces for this include my work “The Rules”, as well as “The Oak And The Lark” and “Hope”, which you can hear in the #ChoirsForClimate concert from March below.

March 2023

Thank you to everyone involved in the #ChoirsForClimate concert on 5th March! This was a wonderful event, with over 150 in the audience and over 50 in the choir, funded by Creative Scotland, and we raised several hundred pounds for Greenpeace. Our programme included the first live performances of “Send Lazarus” and “The Rules”, and the second-ever performance of “Why We Sing”, along with the premiere performances of pieces by Engelhardt Unaeb, Karen MacAulay, Anne-Marie Sanderson, Kevin Fox, Deborah Shaw and Merzi Rajala. Click here to see more details and the complete setlist. Watch “Why We Sing” below. You can see all 18 songs from the concert in our YouTube playlist, or watch the entire concert in one video (including talks between pieces).

Download the score for Why We Sing (which is available for free under a Creative Commons license) at https://choirsforclimate.com/why-we-sing – there are a few different versions available, depending on whether you’re performing a concert in support of ecocide law, climate activism in general, or want a more generic song. You are also invited to rewrite some lyrics in collaboration with your choir members. If you’re performing this, please make a contribution to a climate-related cause, use it to raise funds or awareness to support an ecological charity, or similar work.

If you’d like to see copies of any of the other pieces we performed in the concert, please email me – I can send the score or put you in touch with the composers.

December 2022

Thank you to the Aurora Consort for giving the first public performance of “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” on 10th December at 4.30pm in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Huntingfield, Suffolk. Listen to the recording here:

Thank you to the Good Afternoon Choirs run by Grenville Jones, who sang “Welcome Carol” from #ChoirsAgainstRacism in many of their concerts across the south of England during December.

November 2022

Thank you to Gilmerton Singers and Castle Chorus, who gave the first public performance of “Why We Sing” from #ChoirsForClimate on 7th November in Edinburgh! Download the score (which is available under a Creative Commons license) at https://choirsforclimate.com/why-we-sing.

In news from across the Atlantic, thank you to Voces Boreales, a Montréal-based choir, for performing “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep” as part of their concert “In Memoriam” on 5th November!

September 2022

On 18th September a #ChoirsForClimate come-and-sing event in Edinburgh happened; it was very well attended and we hope to do a larger-scale concert in 2023. You can read more about the event in this Evening News article.

Thank you to Con Anima Chamber Choir who gave the world troisieme (like a world premiere, but the third performance) of “I brought your name to the river”, commissioned and premiered (and deuxiemed, okay, maybe this is getting silly – ed.) by the Edinburgh Singers in 2017. It was part of their concert of new works on 29th October as part of Sound Festival in Aberdeen, at 3pm in Aberdeen Art Gallery, conducted by James Weeks.

August 2022

Thanks to all those who came to the #ChoirsForClimate come-and-sing event on 18th September! We sang new music by composers from Scotland, England, Namibia, Finland and the USA – songs of warning, protest, solutions and hope.

July 2022

I’ve just made a repertoire request form so you can ask me for sample scores for your choir. If you’re looking for seasonal repertoire, here’s a selection of my Christmas and holiday pieces.

June 2022

Kantos Chamber Choir gave the first UK performance of “Let Them Not Say” in Manchester on 19th June at 6pm, in the Stoller Hall in Chethams School of Music.

If you’re looking for new music for a youth choir or children’s choir (age ranges 5-17), check out my selection of 11 pieces for younger groups. Ranging from “Welcome Carol”, an anti-racism Christmas piece, to “All My Friends Live In My Pocket”, an upbeat number about how social media can help you make friends (now available on MusicSpoke).

If you’d like to see everything I’ve ever written for choirs, here it is in a giant spreadsheet! With useful tags like choir size, language, difficulty, links to recordings, and where to get the score.

May 2022

Seattle Pro Musica performed “Where Are my Unnumbered Days?” and “The Wall” from #ChoirsAgainstRacism as part of “The Way Home – Music of Refuge”: at https://www.seattlepromusica.org/the-way-home, you can buy tickets to watch the online streamed performances, which are available until 4th July.

“Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” reached the final of Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir’s composition competition! It’s a setting of George Herbert’s poem, for SATB without divisi, medium difficulty, about two and a half minutes – click here for a preview score. If you’d be interested in performing it, please email me. It would be suitable for almost any church service and for most concert settings.

April/May 2022

Seattle Pro Musica performed “Where Are my Unnumbered Days?” and “The Wall” from #ChoirsAgainstRacism in their concerts “The Way Home – Music of Refuge” on 21st and 22nd May. Details at https://www.seattlepromusica.org/the-way-home – you can also buy tickets to watch the online streamed performances, which are available until 4th July.

Anyone wanting to get the scores for these – both pieces are available under Creative Commons at http://choirsagainstracism.com, and can be used freely for any concert supporting refugees/migrants or fighting against racism. “The Wall” is flexible 2-part, “Where Are My Unnumbered Days?” is SSAATTBB (with a longish SMezATB section, so would suit a slightly top-heavy choir).

And it seems one American choir performing my music on 21st and 22nd May wasn’t enough – here’s another one!

Ember Choral Arts performed “Let Them Not Say” (first ever live performance) from #ChoirsForClimate in their concerts in New York (21st May) and New Jersey (22nd May). The concert on 21st May will also be available as a livestream after the concerts. Again, the score is available under Creative Commons – it’s for SSAATTBB.

In other social justice bard news, I’ve just finished two other pieces for #ChoirsForClimate, both for 2-part choir (optional divisi to 4 parts) and piano: “Why We Sing” (hopeful, would suit children’s choir) and “The Rules” (dark and angry). Both are free for any relevant campaigning or concerts – please send me a message if you’d like to perform them.

In addition, Jack Senzig and the Children’s Choir of Teh Internet in Wisconsin premiered “All My Friends Live In My Pocket” on 16th May! Watch the video here.

January 2022

I’ve been making a lot of YouTube score videos lately. Click here for my playlist of Christmas pieces – #12DaysOfChrisHutchingsMas. Includes pretty much every Christmas piece I’ve written – read the scores as you listen. Get your music for Christmas 2022 sorted now! Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to get updates.

December 2021

Delighted to announce (ooh, first time I’ve been able to say that for a while) that my piece “When The Snow Came” has won Kantos Choir’s composition competition! They gave the premiere on 18th December in Manchester. Recording available now on my #12DaysOfChrisHutchingsMas YouTube playlist.

November 2021

A big thank you to Beckington Village Choir from Somerset, who sang “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep” on Remembrance Sunday, 14 November 2021, at 10.30am in St George’s Church, Beckington!

August 2021

I’m making all my unpublished music free for any choirs who want it. If a piece on this site is not available through MusicSpoke or other publishers, send me an email with the name of your choir and I’ll send you a PDF of the piece, you can print as many copies as you need. This includes the new piece below:

New piece! “Be Thou A Bright Flame” (a prayer of St Columba) for SATB choir, no divisi. Perfect for choirs returning to singing and perhaps reduced in numbers. View the score here (2 pages) and listen on SoundCloud. Thanks to friends Steph, Anne-Marie, Paul and Chris J for being the virtual choir for this! Email me to order copies (post-pandemic these will be £10 for a PDF, print as many copies as you like, or £1+P&P for printed copies).

Other unpublished pieces available for free during the pandemic include: Statue Songs (5 pieces for SABar and piano, based on Scots myths); “Loch Lomond” and “A Red Red Rose” for SA choir; “A Bicycle Wheel” for flexible 3-part choir; “Come Away Death” for SATB; “Answer The Question” for SATB (verrry difficult but fun); SABar arrangements of “A Highland Lad” and “Duncan Gray”; “All My Friends Live In My Pocket”, a song about smartphones for children’s choir (1-2 parts) and piano; and “Drop Slow Tears” for SSA.

And several of my pieces are free forever: everything of mine at choirsforclimate.com and choirsagainstracism.com is available under Creative Commons, as are many other works on those sites.

July 2021

Check the #ChoirsForClimate site for lots of new music, resources, information and events!

April 2021

Virtual choir recording of “Let Them Not Say” released on #EarthDay2021 (22nd April!) Watch it below:

Words by Jane Hirshfield, used with permission; music and video concept by Chris Hutchings; sung by the Piedmont Singers, directed by Helena von Rueden; video and audio mixing by Ian Richardson.

Buy the music as a single on Bandcamp (all proceeds to climate causes)

Click here for more information about the piece, including a free download of the score (for SSAATTBB choir).

December 2020

Thank you to the choir of Winchester Cathedral for including my setting of the Nunc Dimittis in their evensong service on 4th December! You can listen to the recording here (Nunc starts just before the halfway point).

October 2020

I’ve written a new piece for #ChoirsForClimate “Let Them Not Say” with words by Jane Hirshfield. This is available under a Creative Commons license. It’s for SSAATTBB choir – definitely on the challenging side! World premiere available.

And in #ChoirsAgainstRacism news, “I Was Listening To A Pogrom” (words by Michael Rosen) was recently performed as part of “Occupy The Pianos” on 18th October in St John’s Smith Square, London, by Rolf Hind and Loré Lixenberg – click here for concert details and a concert programme. Recording now available – click here to watch and listen! The recording has been made into an excellent multimedia film, which moves seamlessly between film and live performance.

September 2020

A new recording of “Anna, Surprised” (words by Euan Tait) – find out more about the piece and see a preview score. This recording is by Tim Krueger and the choir of St Andrew’s Church, Denver – thank you all!

“Where Are My Unnumbered Days?” has been accepted as part of Project:Encore, which aims to connect conductors with new works for further performances beyond the premiere.

August 2020

So, yeah, a worldwide pandemic happened and there is probably not going to be a lot of singing happening for a while. But I was able to put together virtual choirs for two new pieces – many thanks to all the singers who volunteered online! You can listen to them below:

If you have a choir who’d like to sing one of these, get in touch!

Any choirs wishing to use my works for a virtual choir are welcome to do so as long as you’ve purchased copies – any of my pieces from #ChoirsAgainstRacism or #ChoirsForClimate are free to use. “Send Lazarus”, above, is part of #ChoirsForClimate and can be downloaded here; “Keep Watch, Dear Lord” is available to buy at MusicSpoke.

You can read older news about my music here.