Choir Director and Songwriter
Here are some of the beautiful ways in which one of Helen’s best-loved songs has been sung over the years. The song lends itself to infinite interpretation, making it super-flexible…! If you have a video of your group singing this uplifting song, contact Helen and we’ll add yours to the list!
Use the arrows to scroll through videos of all the versions so far. Remember to mute the home page Audio Player before playing these videos.
Watch Helen’s song ‘Never Take Away My Voice’ here – a song of hope written in the summer of 2020 about the cost of the coronavirus crisis. The images were put to music by Helen’s daughter, Miki. The song is available to buy on the Scores Page.
Line Up! from the One World show at Conway Hall, London in 2019.
After the success of One World London, Helen had hoped to bring the show to the SouthWest. Unfortunately the scheduled time to perform this clashed with the pandemic and the project had to be cancelled.
Here are links to the One World Page and previous performances.
“One of the most moving musical events I have ever experienced” Anne Ridgely, Amnesty International
“A stand-out event in a stand-out year for City of Culture!” Phil White, BBC Radio Humberside
All of Helen’s best-loved choir songs are now available to download on the CD and Downloads Page. So just choose your favourite tunes and download in seconds, for just 79p each! There is a sample of every song to listen to. Her albums are all downloadable as well. Click here to go straight to the page.
Helen’s performance choir Glorious Chorus was featured in the ‘Meet My Choir’ slot on The Choir programme on Sunday 5th June 2016 – catch it on iPlayer.
Shakti Sings Glastonbury Festival choir of green guardians sings Helen’s song ‘We Got All The Love’ in the mud at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. The choir, led by friend and colleague Susie Prater, add their unique flavour to this community choir favourite. Listen to it and smile…!
Note from Helen about this arrangement: ‘I was persuaded to write an arrangement of Jerusalem by a friend after initially having reservations about the song. But after researching the origins of Jerusalem I soon fell headlong in-love with it.’ Read more
You can purchase this arrangement on the Scores Page.
Note from Helen about this arrangement:
‘I was persuaded to write an arrangement of Jerusalem by a friend after initially having reservations about the song. But after researching the origins of Jerusalem I soon fell headlong in-love with it.
Jerusalem was written in 1816 using a short poem by William Blake and set to music by Hubert Parry. Although originally commissioned to raise morale in England during the First World War, the words by Blake tell a much bigger picture. Blake was a humanist rather than a nationalist and his poem laments the rise of industrialisation, it’s effects upon the oppressed poor and the degradation of England’s natural beauty. It is a calling for radical change and a better society for the country’s working population.
The dramatic phrases in Verse 2 were not meant to be taken literally, this is not a call to arms. Blake favoured non-violent sedition, the mental fight, to restore a new ‘Jerusalem’ to England’s green and pleasant land. Jerusalem in this context means ‘heaven’. The suggestion in Verse 1 that Jesus may have walked upon England’s mountains green is well acknowledged, referring to the many undocumented years of Jesus’s life. ‘And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills?’ Blake was a religious man and often resorted to cloaking social idealism and political statements in Protestant mystical allegory. It is no wonder this beautiful song has been an anthem for the labour and trade union movements as well as the suffragette movement and WI.s
In re-writing Jerusalem I wanted to move away from pomp and nationalistic fervour as I believe this is not what Blake intended. Hubert Parry also wanted to distance himself from any notion of nationalism. To this end I chose to re-write the time signature in 6/8 time rather than the marching 4/4 time, giving the song a more lilting, folky feel; more longing, less vainglory. I have also created an uplifting chorus in a gospel-like style, in keeping with Blake’s references to ‘he who may have walked’ on England’s blessed isle.
You can purchase this arrangement on the Scores Page.
The Montgomery Freedom Flame project is an initiative in the spirit of international camaraderie and cooperation. Originally lit in Portsmouth in 1948, the torch was carried to France and the Netherlands, both occupied nations during World War II, where it has been kept ever since, to represent justice and liberation. Now the Freedom Flame has been brought back to the UK and is now installed in Princes Quay in Hull. 2015 was the 70th anniversary of the end of the war and was marked in Hull by a series of celebrations in the name of freedom, culminating in a major event on 8th May, the 70th anniversary date.
Helen was commissioned to write a piece of music especially for this event. Her song ‘Freedom Flame’ was sung by the big Hull Freedom Chorus mass choir on 8th May.
