John Tavener

The Lamb is John Tavener's setting of William Blake's poem for unaccompanied SATB (Soprano/Alto/Tenor/Bass) choir. John Tavener's mesmerising choral work The Lamb hasbeen a firm favourite since its composition in 1982. Audiences love the beautiful simplicity of the words and the lush harmonies that the different Vocal parts create. The piece was composed by Tavener in just oneafternoon and was dedicated to his nephew's third birthday. Although the piece is unaccompanied a Piano accompaniment is included for rehearsal purposes. This particular piece is challenging yet rewarding with divergent almost discordant parts in the first verse as the poem asks ambiguous questions. During the second verse however the song breaks into an uplifting harmony as the poem resolves to an epiphany. When performed well TheLamb is quietly atmospheric and a joy to hear. So for something special for your four-part choir to perform John Tavener's The Lamb is a hauntingly pretty piece that is sure to leave youraudiences speechless.

John Tavener's Ex Maria Virgine is a sequence of Christmas carols their emphasis on the Nativity and the Virgin Mary. Scored for SATB unaccompanied or with Organ the collection isrepresentative of the broad range of Tavener's choral writing. These carols may be performed as the full sequence or as individual pieces: carols such as Ding! Dong! Merrily on High and Unto Us is Born aSon to familiar texts made novel and exciting or Rocking a simple four-part setting sure to become a favourite with choirs of any accomplishment.

and Epiphany for Mixed Voice Choirs-Noël! is an exciting Christmas collection for Mixed Voice Choirs selected and edited by David Hill. Featuring a beautiful selection of carols and festive pieces these traditional and modern pieces have been wonderfully arranged.    The contents range from the Renaissance to the present featuring some absolute Christmas sheet music favourites and some lesser-known pieces that will no doubt be a pleasant surprise for audiences. Numerous composers are represented in this here from the polyphony of Victoria and Byrd via Bach familiar settings of traditional and lesser known carols through the ages and works by today'scomposers including Richard Rodney Bennett Judith Bingham John Tavener and Judith Weir make Noël! one of the best choices for choirs for Christmas sheet music.Mixed voice choirs of all levels will find new arrangements of favourite carols here as well as stimulating works for the Christmas and Advent periods from the easy to learn to the more challenging and unconventional. Whichever your choir chooses to perform all are guaranteed to impress audiences with their distillation of the Christmas spirit into some incredible music.    For Christmas carol sheet music look no further than Noël! for Mixed Voice Choirs. This great selection will be a joy to perform and an even bigger joy for your audiences to hear. They're fun and at times challenging but the beauty of these anthems and carols will absolutely herald in the festive spirit for performers and listeners alike.

John Tavener's Coplas composed in 1970 for unaccompanied SATB Choir.'Coplas is a short anthem for voices and tape. It belongs to a much larger work called 'Last Rites' which I have beenthinking about for about a year. It is based on the mystical idea of St. John of the Cross which obsesses me - 'the more I live the more I must die.' Hence the deliberately static nature of Coplas.In once sense Coplas is aprolonged decoration of the 'et sepultus est' cadence from the Crucifixus in Bach's Mass in B minor. In another sense I think of it not so much as my music but a way of listening to Bach's music.' - JohnTavener

Commissioned by the Guildford Philharmonic for the Tallis Scholars. First performance by the Tallis Scholars on 10th March 2000 at Holy Trinity Church Guildford. Arranged for unaccompanied choir SATB. The Lord'sPrayer should be sung very quietly with an inner serenity and calm that is almost 'silent'.

Commissioned for Tenebrae and their director Nigel Short. John Tavener writes:'Mother and Child celebrates the miracle of childbirth. It also celebrates Mary in her universal aspect as mother of all Prophets andco-redemptress with Christ. But behind all this is the Theophanic Light single and infinite and the same in every Religious tradition. The music is at once tender ecstatic and luminous and follows the text. I have interpolatedinto Brian Keeble’s poem texts celebrating the Eternal feminine in Greek and then at the climax an outburst in Sanskrit of ATMA. This is supreme Reality the true Self shining and infinite the one single God expressedin music by pulsating awesome strokes on the Hindu Temple Gong with organ and choir in massive blocks. This seems to say that the real ‘Mother and Child’ are both beyond birth and beyond death and beyond time.'

John Taverner's Western Wind Mass is one of three extant Early Tudor masses bearing that title the others being by Christopher Tye and John Shepherd. They are so named because their canutus firmus derives from a setting of thelove lyric 'Westron wynde when wylle thow blow'. Taverner's extant works are not abundant by William Byrd’s standard but they include eight complete masses three Magnificat settings over twenty motets English adaptations ofhis Latin music a handful of secular songs and a couple of instrumental pieces. This work is for SATB voices and is edited by Anthony G. Petti

An original and exciting collection of anthems and other choral pieces written for the Orthodox Church and inspired by the Church in Russia selected by Ralph Allwood. Partly because of the re-emergence of the Church in the former Soviet Union interest in Christian musical sources alternative to the great body of the Anglican and other Western Christian traditions has grown sharply in recent years. Though the works presented here may be unfamiliar they are all masterly. Designed to appeal to choirs of various levels the collection includes a Kontakion and Ikos for the funeral service anthems by Great Russian Romantics: Tchaikovsky Rachmaninov Grechaninov; andcomposers from our age: Stravinsky Schnittke or Arvo Part speaking for a tradition outside the Orthodox Church as well as settings of the Lord's Prayer in both Russian and English by John Tavener.

A Garland For Linda is an evocative and moving anthology of works for a cappella chorus to commemorate the life of Linda McCartney. Modelled on the precedent of A Garland For The Queen (1953) nine British composers including Paul McCartney Richard Rodney Bennett John Rutter and John Tavener have been inspired to compose music of considerable expressiveness and beauty. The anthology shows the power of music to provide hope to those whoare suffering from ill health. For every book purchased £1 will be given to the Garland Appeal which aims to raise £2m for breast and liver cancer research.

Composer's Note'The words of this piece are taken from the poem They are all gone into the world of light by Henry Vaughan. The music came to me after attending the beautiful and moving funeral of MarianneYacoub wife of the eminent heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub who has been such a great support to me over many years.'             - JohnTavenerThey Are All Gone Into The World Of LightThey are all gone into the world of light!And I alone sit ling’ring here;I see them walking in an air of glory Whoselight doth trample on my days:My days which are at best but dull and hoary Mere glimmering and decays.Dear beauteous Death! the jewel of the just Shining nowhere but in the dark;Could man outlookthat mark!And into glory peep.Either disperse these mists which blot and fillMy perspective still as they pass:Or else remove me hence unto that hill Where I shall need noglass.             - Henry Vaughan

Composer's notes:The Fool is a time-honoured Orthodox religious figure: a Saint the highest of all who discards everything for Christ's sake. He discards all convention all decency all wealth actual and spiritual and turns himself into a figure of fun - defying all acceptable behaviour - and all religious decency. He stands in the square and lets down his trousers - he stuffs himself with food on Good Friday - he gets drunk - he 'appears'to fornicate wildly. There is a faint possibility (in not the highest of 'Fools') of gaining worldly popularity by such flagrant denial of all moral behaviour. Can such behaviour be too interesting? The true fool however embraces all of this and also (unseen) shrinks before the face of his God. By his behaviour he plucks out all hypocrisy false piety and corruption. He is a figure much needed in our times!!! The way I have tried to tacklethis extraordinary subject is to show him in seven stages from an obscene huge fat traditional clown who is drunk fornicating etc. through a stumbling frail agonized figure to a sallow-faced gaunt business man in a formalsuit staring at an empty glass. Having first revered him then mocked him the 'people' while they get drunk and jabber away at 'Christmas' and at the Feast of Feasts 'Easter' are no longer aware of him. But the audience seeshim - a tiny ragged scrap of mortality lying in a corner and faintly so faintly the voice of the Fool the true Fool for Christ's sake sings above the ribald crowd. 'He has given His life'. The Gogmagogs are the 'people' 'priests' 'singers' etc. and one male singer who can 'create' or 'uncreate' this vast role (singing and acting miming etc.) John Tavener Arranged for SSATBB chorus. Date of composition 2000. Chorus part only.

Vocal score for this work for SSSSAATBBBB choir.This is a special item which is made to order. Please e-mail our Mail Order Department for further information.