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Friday, the 12 th of December 2025  #arranging #conducting #JingleBells  I have just received the loveliest email from the British Museums Singers. I used to conduct them in the early 1990’s. One singer is still there and he remembers singing my arrangement of Jingle Bells. He brought it out again for their performance at the staff party and by all accounts they really enjoyed singing it. It is rather jolly.  Jingle Bells (SATBarB, with optional bells) (arr. Dominic McGoniga

Wednesday, the 10 th of December 2025   #SunsetAtSea #recording  A lovely meeting over lunch with James and Mark to plan the albums. We are just at the point of booking the musicians so there was lots of talk of how many recording sessions we need and how to get quality for radio play. One of the players of the premiere of Sunset At Sea wants to hear it on Classic FM!

Saturday, the 29 th of November 2025, evening  #SunsetAtSea #premiere #première #SeaSymphony #SheffieldChamberOrchestra #LaurencePerkins  The première. It’s an incredible feeling hearing the sounds in your head come to life. I introduced the piece at the concert, saying that Sunset At Sea was the music that was swirling in my head sitting on the rocks in West Clare watching the sun set over the Atlantic – the murmuring violins, the overlapping waves of the oboe and clarinet,

Wednesday, the 26 th of November 2025, very early morning  #Tide #SeaSymphony #SciathlúireachMhuire  I just woke up with a map of the final section of the 4th movement. I reached for my miniature pad of manuscript paper but it was not there. I had to get out of bed to get my notebook. It now has a structure for the model transposition of the cantus firmus, an augmented version of the ancient Irish melody which opens the movement and the figuration to turn it into a grand fi

Tuesday, the 25 th of November 2025  #composing #mentor #Cambridge #PatHalling #quartet  What should have been a rather dull seminar about commissioning turned into an inspiring session. In particular, Spitalfields Festival director Sarah said there were some really interesting voices only emerging late in life.  The most common reasons are raising a family and financial constraints getting in the way of composing. For me it was the fear of not being taken seriously.   I hav

Monday, the 24th of November 2025  #Tide #SeaSymphony #composing   Sometimes it’s difficult to commit. The big theme in the middle section of the fourth movement has been going round my head for three weeks now, gradually filling out with counter melodies and ever more beautiful similarities from adding instruments into the top line as well as underneath. But somehow I hold back from committing the full orchestration of the section because I think something better will come a

Sunday, the 23rd of November 2025  Composing On The Train  #composing #orchestrating #inspiration   I arrived early to sing at all Saints, Fulham, so I had the chance to spend 15 minutes on the 4th movement in the lovely coffee shop opposite Putney Bridge tube. I did some work on the middle section on the train yesterday to Buxted but I was too tired last night to transfer my notes on the printout onto MuseScore. So this morning was a good opportunity to flesh out the orchest

Sunday, the 9th of November 2025  #composing #inspiration #Tide #SeaSymphony    A day full of music – singing Victoria Requiem a 4 this morning at St Patrick’s Soho, listening to new music from the Carr Consort conducted by Gavin Carr, singing Byrd 4 part mass and Vaughan Williams Valiant For Truth. In between, I find time to work on the 4th movement of the sea symphony. Inspired by the cantus firmus in the Victoria Requiem, I worked on a possible Cantus Firmus for the finale

Friday, the 7 th of November 2025  #inspiration #SeaSymphony #Tide   I’ve just been to see The Choral, released today. So now I have Dream of Gerontius in my head, replacing the big theme in the 4 th movement of the Sea Symphony. Gerontius is such a powerful piece and I freely admit I cried several times during the music. I was reminded of hearing the Priest’s Go Forth at my grandfather’s funeral then, a few years later, playing the Angel’s Farewell for my grandmother’s fun

Thursday, the 6 th of November 2025  #composing #Tide #SeaSymphony   Pasta and Polyphony (aka Thursday Night), four friends round to eat, drink and sing. They asked me about the composition process, which is still a mystery to me. What comes first, melody or harmony? My notebook has fragments of melody and whole tunes (including the big theme in the 4 th movement). It also has harmonies – oscillating chords or full harmonic sequences. The big theme has been matched with one

Sunday, the 2 nd of November 2025  #Tide #SeaSymphony #composing #notebook   I left my notebook in Sheffield – I'm used to forgetting things now and almost always have a contingency in place. I started a new notebook today and got to use it during breaks in a day out – glorious singing in Ealing Abbey, a feast for the eyes at the Brands Museum, coffee and a snack in Ladbroke Grove, then shopping. It is then that I needed time out, after overload. I sat like a lost soul on a

When London Medical Orchestra conductor Oliver Till spoke to composer Dominic McGonigal about the group’s forthcoming 70th anniversary, a...

We have a date! The Ave Verum will be premiered at the London Festival Of Contemporary Church Music on Saturday 18 May. It will feature...

Saxophonist Sam Corkin put together the album commissioning 15 pieces from composers, with a brief to write something new using an...

It’s always nerve-racking having a premiere of one of your pieces, especially at a high profile event in front of an audience of 1300....

Thank you to Janet Oates and Philomel for an amazing concert on St. Cecilia’s Day. ‘Rhythm Herd’ was beautifully performed! Thank you for...

“Night Song” with the BBC Singers, 18th September 2018 At BBC’s Maida Vale studios, it’s like walking the length of a ship’s interior to...

Premiere of Dominic McGonigal’s two string quartets, ‘In Conversation’ and ‘Mathilda’, 26th September 2018 Lumen URC church, in London’s...

Ahead of the premiere of Dominic McGonigal’s two string quartets the 26th of September at Lumen by Kings Cross he has completed this Q&A....

Dominic’s Night Song , entered into BASCA’s call for scores, was selected for the BBC Singers workshop on Tuesday 18 September at Maida...

On the 26th of September 2018 the Quartet Pro Musica will perform two premières – Dominic McGonigal’s first string quartet In...