Well within the technical abilities of many amateur and semi-professional choirs, Cresswell's unaccompanied choral work The Belly of the Whale is a song about freedom and deliverance through the medium of its spiritual text, which has undergone many changes during its passage from generation to generation and place to place. This is only one version of it. The figures of Jonah, Daniel and Noah each symbolise freedom and deliverance from slavery.

Initially spare and searching, in its second, faster section Cresswell adds a dose of contemporary harmony to the gospel tradition, at once oblique, unsettling and rousing. This is a rewarding repertoire choice for both a concert setting and church context. The Belly of the Whale was written as a gift for John Currie and the John Currie Singers.