FAITH from FAITH, LOVE, HOPE by Frederick Stocken and played by the composer
I felt inspired to write a piece about faith as a response to the Catholic Church's 'Year of Faith' from 2012 to 2013. The music that became Faith is an exultant toccata-like piece with a motto theme in the pedals based on how the words 'I believe' might be sung. It became apparent that I had some more music brewing for the other so-called 'theological virtues', Hope and Love, although, to make a more satisfying succession of three pieces, with Love as the centre of the group and Hope as a climax, I changed the traditional order of listing the virtues - Faith, Hope and Love - to that of the title.
The whole piece lasts about ten minutes, with each movement in the region of three to four minutes -- a similar scheme to my Archangels -- and I always intended that each of the pieces might be suitable for the liturgy on its own, or that all three might make a satisfactory recital group.
The sound recording was made in a single take, like a live performance, at St Mary's, Woodford, London on 24 February 2014.
Many thanks to Jay de Cock, who made the sound recording, and Rachel de Cock, who made the video.