Yes, I am your angel: Vocal score (New Horizons)

for SATB unaccompanied
The text for this imaginative and effective piece by Gabriel Jackson is a response to Allen Ginsberg's A Supermarket in California by Latvian poet Kārlis Vērdiņš, translated here by Ieva Lešinska. As in Ginsberg's poem, the initial setting is a supermarket, depicted with vivid imagery such as 'a weary, shrivelled apple', before the angel protagonist expounds on their observations about contemporary society. Pleasingly alliterative lines such as 'he'd babble boozily about tanks' are artfully given rhythmic emphasis by Jackson, who fully exploits the dramatic intent of the poem, giving space for the text to come through by homophonic setting, a pure harmonic language, and often sparse textures.

Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral he studied composition at the Royal College of Music. Jackson's music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast worldwide, and his works have been presented at many festivals including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Spitalfields, and the BBC Proms. His liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of many of Britain's cathedral and collegiate choirs, and his choral works in general have been recorded by some of the world's leading choirs including Polyphony, The Vasari Singers, The State Choir of Latvia, and Merton College Choir, Oxford. He is currently the Associate Composer to the BBC Singers, who have premiered and broadcast a number of recent commissions. Over recent years Jackson's music has been equally focussed on instrumental works. Commissions include works for organist Michael Bonaventure, Red Note Ensemble, and the Lunar Sax Quartet.