Re-New was composed by Antony Pitts, the William Byrd Fellow & Ambassador at Excelsia University College – for Graduation Day 2025 at Excelsia. The words, from the fortieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, are both realistic and inspiring: they speak of inevitable lows – the young men stumbling and falling – and the potential of being raised up, metaphorically, on the wings of an eagle – by hoping and putting trust in God, even in the darkest times. The music in Re-New draws on Antony’s research into the compositional technique of ‘murmuration’. Inspired by the movement of birds in a flock (the voices and the string orchestra) over a changing landscape (the chugging bassline and percussion), the voices follow each other in canon, separating out into more and more parts each time the tonal centre rises by a tone across the three repetitions of the text. The final ‘Hallelujah’ is also in three, much shorter, sections, but stays in the same luminous key of E major. The principles of this ‘murmuration’ technique are underpinned by Bathe’s Table (William Bathe’s A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Song, c.1596), which sets out the intervals that can be used in a variety of canons over a bassline; in the full outworking of this new technique, the intervals and durations morph in the way that birds follow each other – here the foundational harmonies are used to create a monumental procession of hope and redemption. May be performed with choral or solo voices and/or instruments, with at least one bass instrument, and optional percussion. The première recording by TONUS AUSTRALIS and Excelsia Choir & Chamber Orchestra is available on Equal Music and all major streaming platforms.