This work was commissioned for the choir of St. Paul's Old Church, Edinburgh, who gave the first performance on the 11th of June 1989 at St. Giles' Church, Edinburgh, conducted by Leslie Shankland.

This is a setting in Scotsofthe passage in the Apocalypse where St. John hears a voice from the throne, that voice appearing here as soprano-alto duets from a distance, building, as Davies has said, ' fine bridge' from the time of the Edinburgh church tothepresent. Both vocal groups sing in transluc...