commissioned by Paul Ayres and first performed in 1994; duration: c.4'30"

This organ piece was written in response to the vision of Isaiah in chapter 6:1-4:

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain did he fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke."

The piece is in two sections (a quasi-Prelude & Fugue):

- the first section depicts the (awed & adoring) seraphim with six wings - two covering the feet (decorated parallel 4ths in the pedals), two covering the face & two for flying (decorated parallel 4ths in both manuals) and is appropriately derived from a Sanctus setting (the opening "Holy, Holy, Holy") written the year before

- the second section is a re-ordering of the same notes into a canonic subject & countersubject that eventually occupy both feet and all ten fingers at the same time in 12-part counterpoint of a sort - which represents the "train [which] filled the temple", the "earth full of his glory", the "house...filled with smoke"

- the very end is the "posts of the door" moving...and the vision is frozen (perhaps the reaction of Isaiah himself) into a held perfect 5th - which should be as loud as the circumstances will allow...