Ronald Corp composed over a thousand pieces before going to university.
Most of these he destroyed and his first major work was the cantata And
all the trumpets sounded premiered by the Highgate Choral Society who
commissioned it in 1989; this work is published by Stainer and Bell. The
choral works include Laudamus (1994) performed at St John's Smith
Square by the London Chorus to great critical acclaim. The third
performance of this work was given in a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival
Hall. Sainsbury's commissioned him to write a piece for the Farnham Youth
Choir, winners of their section of the Sainsbury Choir of the Year. Four Elizabethan Lyrics (V) is 17I published by Oxford University
Press, for whom Ronald is also editor of their Upper Voice Series.
Recent compositions include Cornucopia, a cycle of songs for
children's choir and orchestra (1997), and its successor Kaleidoscope
(2002). Both of these have been very successful with numerous
performances. His cantatas include Jubilate, (1995), A New Song,
(published by OUP 1999), Mary's Song, (2000) and Adonai Echad
(2000). Smaller works include the song cycles Flower of Cities and
Miscellanie.
Instrumental works include Homage for flute and piano (rev 2003)
and a Piano Concerto (1997) heard in London at St John's Smith Square and
the Queen Elizabeth Hall (this work is possibly the most winningly
successful British Piano Concerto of the last forty years or so'
Robert Matthew Walker). A suite of Purcell arrangements for violin and
strings was premiered in 2003, and his orchestrations of Satie's Gnossiennes
were featured in the film Chocolat.
Of his numerous part songs and carols for children's choir the most
notable are For Billy and All ye works of the Lord both with
instrumental accompaniment, and Blake's Cradle Song. His smaller
works for adult choir include We will remember them, Verbum
Patris umanatur, and There is no rose.
Recent performances have taken place in Canterbury, Bolton,
Basingstoke, Venice, Edinburgh, at St John's Smith Square, UCL Bloomsbury,
the Wigmore Hall and the Crush Bar Covent Garden.
In 2003 BBC Radio 3
commissioned a major work for the BBC Singers - a setting of Matthew
Arnold's Dover Beach, and recent compositions include Guernsey Postcards, a sinfonietta for chamber orchestra commissioned
by the Guernsey Camerata, and an anthem The Revival
performed at Winchester cathedral. A large scale cantata Waters of
Time will be premiered in Wells Cathedral in 2006.