Elizabeth Poston 1905–87
Composer; Arranger; Editor ; Pianist; BBC
In 2023 Multitude of Voyces was honoured to become the official representative of the musical and literary estate of Elizabeth Poston. The charity owns the majority of her musical and literary copyrights including her most-famous work Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.
Alongside these responsibilities and rights the charity is also the owner of her literary archive and of the content and copyright of the published and unpublished work of the late Dr John Alabaster on that archive.
The charity is now undertaking urgent and extensive remedial work to actively manage and protect Poston’s works and their related income. The composer’s musical and literary works remain in full copyright until 2058.
Some income from the use of the Poston copyright is used to support the wider work of the charity and its other projects, in keeping with the composer’s own support of her peers.
Some unpublished and out-of-print works are being published by MoV (see below for scores and recordings) and long-term plans are being made to raise up her wider legacy.
The charity should be the first point of reference for other publishers, academics or members of the public.
With regret, at this time the charity cannot authorise, endorse or support academic study or the new publication of works by third parties. New arrangements of her musical or literary works are not allowed at this time and historical arrangements made without the permission of the composer or her previous executor are unlikely to be authorised for continued publication or use.
Our authorised Project Partners for the Poston Project are Continuum, Gesualdo Six and RSCM.
A settled rest (SSA & harp)
Video available soon
This was Poston's final work, prepared for publication by her friend and future executor, Simon Campion for its premiere performance in March 1987 at the Albert Hall (London) at a service to celebrate the Centenary of Women's World Day of Prayer. The work was performed by The Chamber Choir of the Arts Educational School, Tring Park (Hertfordshire, UK).
In keeping with some other works by Poston, she adds her own 'signature' to the setting, adding an Alleluia to the original text by Isaac Watts.
An English Day-Book (SSA & harp)
This multi-part work for upper voices and harp was composed in 1967 following requests for Poston to create a work to complement Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols.
Two short movements from Corvus Consort's recent recording are shown here: please follow the links below to access the whole recording.
An English Day-Book (SSA & harp)
Redacted score for perusal only.
Not legal for use.
Behold a silly tender babe (SATB)
Elizabeth Poston's arrangement of a melody from Corner's 'Geistliche Gesangbuch' (1625), on text by Robert Southwell (1561-1595) was created for the Cambridge Hymnal (1967) of which she was the music editor.
This work is sold individually through rscmshop.com and is also found within A Christmas Selection (1)
Christmas Day (Unison voices & piano)
Christmas Day, Elizabeth’s setting of a short poem by the Priest, poet and naturalist Andrew Young (1885–1971), represents her limited output of settings of modern poetry.
This work is sold individually through rscmshop.com and is also found within A Christmas Selection (1)
December Lulling (SATB)
December Lulling - Commentary
December Lulling is the penultimate movement of the unpublished multi-part work An English Kalendar, a choral sequence for Soprano solo, SAATB chorus, Piano and Percussion. The work was apparently commissioned by the Farnham Festival, though the details are still unclear, and in 1971 the premiere performance, given by Tiffin School pupils and staff, was recorded, though not released commercially. The full cycle is an extensive piece and lasts for more than 30 minutes, making use of an eclectic selection of musical forms and percussion instruments including xylophone and tubular bells.
In a manner similar to Poston’s earlier multi-part work, An English Day-Book, the passage of time provides a very loose framework for the sequence, though unlike An English Day-Book, An English Kalendar includes dramatic narrative, a favoured device of Poston’s, frequently used by her in commissions for BBC Radio. In the poem each month is personified in the first person, with the narrator linking religious events and Feast Days to the seasons and routines of English pastoral and farming life of the 16th century.
The text of December Lulling is the final stanza of a rather grandiose devotional poem, The Kalender of Shepardes, which was published some time after 1498 by the printer Julian Notary. The writer of the text is unknown, despite the poem apparently serving as a major influence on the poet Edmund Spenser’s poem of a similar name and theme, The Shepheardes Calender, which was published only a few generations after The Kalender of Shepardes.
In this contemplative setting, which is for voices only, and describes the Nativity of Christ, the ‘story-telling’ of the soloists is set against earnestly-repeated refrains of ‘Lulla’ and ‘Lullaby’ which words do not appear in the original poem. This may be a deliberate reference to the second of the songs in the 15th century Coventry mystery play The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors which is generally referred to as the Coventry Carol and was set to music by many of Poston’s contemporaries. A feeling of foreboding underlies the gentle celebration of Jesus' birth.
The title of the movement, December Lulling, appears to be Poston’s own.
©MoV 2025
Score available Summer 2026
Festal Te Deum
(SATB & organ, optional trumpet)
Commission: St Matthew's Church, Northampton, for the Festival there 21 September 1959
Dedication: To John Bertalot and the Choir of St Matthew's Church, Northampton
Score available Summer 2026
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (SSAATB)
Her original miniature for voice and piano, The Apple Tree, the text of which may well have been written by the Calvinist Baptist pastor Richard Hutchins (fl. 1759), was published in Bodley Head’s The Children’s Song Book (1961). Her choral version – Jesus Christ the Apple Tree – arranged for The Cambridge Hymnal, quickly became her most celebrated work.
This work is sold individually through rscmshop.com and is also found within A Christmas Selection (1)
O my deir heart (SATB)
This arrangement of a popular Traditional Scots tune was created by Elizabeth Poston for the Cambridge Hymnal (1967) of which she was the music editor. The text was originally published in Martin Luther's Wittenberg Hymnal (1535) and translated by either John or Robert Wedderburn and published in the Wedderburn brothers' volume 'The Gude and Godlie Ballatis' (1578 edition). The arrangement showcases one of Poston's descants, a device for which she was very popular in the 1960s.
This work is sold individually through rscmshop.com and is also found within A Christmas Selection (1)
Salve Iesus, Little Lad! (SS & piano)
This beautiful carol is one of Poston's earliest works, composed in her late teens. The original publication of the work in 1923 was overseen by her mother, Clementine, but deprived Elizabeth of some of the rights she so keenly guarded in her later life as a composer.
Score coming Summer 2026
The Lamb (S or T & piano)
The Lamb was first published in Poston's The Children's Song Book (Bodley Head 1961). That publication featured several original settings of short religious texts, intended by Poston to be learned and performed domestically. The song is equally suitable for liturgical use.
Elizabeth Poston (1905–87) - Short Biography
Elizabeth Poston was born in rural Hertfordshire, where she lived for most of her life. She studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in the mid-1920s and throughout her life she frequently performed in premieres of her own works, including live broadcasts.
Her skills as a multi-linguist (especially of European languages) enabled her to create her own translations and editions of texts and many of these were published within anthologies for which she was editor, composer and arranger, including The Children’s Song Book and the Penguin Book of Folksongs.
Her compositional output was varied, encompassing dramatico-musical plays, chamber works, secular and sacred choral settings, and solo songs which were often inspired by her love of folksong and the countryside. She was widely commissioned by amateur and professional choirs alike encompassing local schools, choral societies and the BBC Singers with whom she had a particular association through her employment as Director of Music for the BBC European Service during World War II and afterwards as a regular contributor to the BBC Third Programme (Radio 3) as advisor, composer, arranger and biographer.
©MoV 2025 Elizabeth Poston’s music remains under copyright until the end of 2058. For all enquiries please contact Multitude of Voyces
Additional information
Our major project needs dedicated funding additional to the charity's core funding. An initial fund of £40,000 is being raised to complete the first phase of work. Donations of any size are warmly welcomed.
Donate via our CAF Bank Poston Project account
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/22923
(where Gift Aid can be applied automatically)
Some works still in publication were assigned by the composer to commercial publishers. Some of those assignments are still active, however many are now defunct. If you have any questions about the authorised publisher of Poston’s works please contact the charity for further information.
All of Poston’s musical and literary works remain fully in copyright until 2058, whether published by this charity or by third party publishers, and cannot be reproduced or used commercially without the appropriate licences and permissions.