A four movement oratorio, Bhava contemplates Buddhist concepts surrounding life and death. In keeping with the idea that death is not a permanent state, the four movements could start their cycle on any of the four movements and the work would still make sense. The ensemble draws inspiration from sounds associated with Tibetan Buddhists like the Tibetan horn and singing bowls. The work also draws on ideas and concepts more closely associated with the early Catholic Church like organum, motet and canon.

Bhava II – Excerpt from Tibetan Book of the Dead – ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’:

‘Alas, now, as the intermediate state of reality arises before me, Renouncing the merest thought of awe, terror or fear, I will recognise all that arises to be awareness, manifesting naturally of itself. Knowing such (sounds, lights and rays) to be visionary phenomena of the intermediate state, At this moment, having reached this critical point, I must not fear the assembly of Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, which manifest naturally! Go forward…Do not be afraid! Do not be terrified! And do not be awed! Recognise this to be the Buddha-body of your own intrinsic awareness. These are your own meditational deities, so do not be terrified. This, in reality, is the transcendent lord Vairocana and his consort, so do not be afraid. Recognition and liberation will occur simultaneously….’