Shadows of Night was originally commissioned by Tom Appleton for the Southend Festival Chorus and was scored for SATB choir, the Southend children's choirs, strings, percussion, organ and a team of handbell ringers. Being situated on the coast, it was agreed that texts associated with the sea should form a significant part of the work which is otherwise loosely based around the sequence of hymns and psalms found within the service of Vespers, the penultimate service of the monastic day in the Christian tradition.
