The repetitive, slightly jingly metre of this popular medieval hymn presents a challenge to the composer; Park does not attempt to camouflage the insistent metre but instead allows it to propel the music forward, retaining a pleasing simplicity in his melody (he acknowledges Grieg’s setting to be an influence), while clothing it with more sophisticated harmonies that would have delighted Francis Poulenc. The stanzas of the text are prefaced by bell-like repeated notes to the words ‘Ave maris stella’, rising from D via E flat and E natural to a final high G, leading to a luscious final Amen. Written in 2014, Ave maris stella is inscribed ‘for the Richard III Society, George Haynes and the St Peter’s Singers’.

from notes by John Rutter © 2018