Aurea Luce was written at the request of Madeleine Mitchell and Geoff Poole by way ofcelebrating my 50th birthday at a concert in my home town of Shaftesbury, Dorset. The work is based on a plainsong melody sung as a hymn for the Feast of St. Peter s Chair in Rome, reflecting the dedication of the church in which the premiere took place. I started writing the work on International Women s Day 2015 and it was serendipitous that thehymn s text is ascribed very unusually to a 5th century female aut...