Judith Bailey writes: 'My choice of text was linked to the possibility of including trumpet and narrator, feeling that both of those could be employed to make a statement at the beginning and end of the piece. There is some unsion work for the voices combined with quite chromatic harmonies in places, combining with those in the accompanying instrument, which I have scored for either organ or piano. While there may be some challenging passages for choir, attention has been given to linking phrases through appropriate music, hopefully to make these connections easier to rehearse and perform.'

Judith Bailey was born in Cornwall and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, specialising in clarinet, piano, conducting and composition. Since 1971 she has worked freelance, conducting Petersfield Orchestra and Southampton Concert Orchestra for around thirty years, and producing a substantial amount of music which is widely performed and published.

In 2001 she returned to live and work in her native Cornwall where she is conductor of Penzance Orchestra Society and Cornwall Chamber Orchestra, and in the same year was awarded the honour of an ARAM from the Royal Academy. In 2005 she was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth for services to music in Cornwall.