Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Britten's Chorale is a setting of a French carol dating probably from the 17th century, entitled Romancero, although more commonly known as Picardy. The text is by W.H. Auden, and the piece was first performed by the Purcell Singers in December 1961 in London. A Piano accompaniment is provided for rehearsal purposes. / Niveau : Elémentaire / Répertoire / Voix Mixtes

Arranged for SSSAAATTTBBB the lyrics are from an anonymous writer of the fourteenth century and have been adapted by the composer.The composer says: 'Woefully arrayed is a supreme choral setting by William Cornysh Junior who died in 1523 of a text usually regarded as of anonymous composition though there have been some attributions to John Skelton. It is a thoughtful powerful meditation on Christ on the Cross and though Cornysh’s setting has remarkable intensity and contrapuntal artistry I felt a strong wish to add my own response to this fine text. The different versions of it have different verses that used by Cornysh has three verses (plus therefrain) while there are others with four or even five (one attributed to Skelton has five). I have chosen to restrict myself to the three used by Cornysh using my own adaptation of the modernised words which yet incorporates some archaisms a deliberate choice for reasons of rhythm and verbal sound. This setting was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival 2009 for Stile Antico to whom it is dedicated.''Difficult to perform but not difficult to listen to this 2009 Three Choirs Festival commission was first performed by Stile Antico who have since toured it. It is a heartfelt response to the fourteenth-century text passionate and anguished Christ is on the cross ‘woefully arrayed’. Although written for a secular choir it is a piece that could be sung by many cathedral and collegiate choirs: there is considerable doubling between the sixteen lines and a keyboard reduction to help the initial sorting out. Above all it is dramatic and would communicate directly to audiences if given a chance to hear it.'       - James L Montgomer RSCM review

Anthem for SATB Choir and Organ incorporating the well-known 17th Century French Carol Picardy. Composed for the Cheltenham Bach Choir.

Richard Rodney Bennett's setting of the eighteenth-century poem The Apple Tree for SATB chorus unaccompanied.

Par RUTTER JOHN. for SATB and organ or orchestra This gentle yet uplifting carol was commissioned for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, and was first performed during the 2012 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The text, written by the composer, is inspired by the fifteenth-century Corpus Christi Carol. / Date parution : 2023-06-01/ Répertoire / SATB et Piano ou Orchestre

Cantata for string orchestra and chorus. Triptych represents the concatenation and re-orchestration of two extant works. Movement I was commissioned with funds from The RVW Trust for the inaugural concert of the Choir of London conducted by Jeremy Summerly in Christ Church, Spitalfields on 18th December, 2004 - the work, premièred as Threnody, was subsequently toured by the Choir to Jerusalem and the West Bank from 19th-26th December, 2004. Movements II and III, commissioned by Portsmouth Grammar School with financial support from the PRS Foundation, were premièred as And There Was a Great Calm in a contiguous version for lower strings and upper voices by the Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir and the London Mozart Players in a concert at Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral on 13th November, 2005 conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu. The title of this latter section is taken from Thomas Hardy's poem of the same name, written at the signing of the Armistice on 11th November, 1918 - a couplet from which is set, in a moment of tranquillity, in the final movement. Relatively new to living in New York, I am much more aware of the independent, vibrant cultural plurality that exists today - it's probably the single most dazzling facet of the City and is largely responsible for the infamous 'edginess' that pervades daily life there. With this in mind, I set to work on Threnody (movement I here) in 2004 - I wanted to write something that was relevant to the Israeli/Palestinian issue without losing that City 'edge'. The texts, in English, are excerpted from a variety of sources: William Penn, William Blake, the Psalms of David and Muhammad Rajab Al-Bayoumi, an Egyptian poet of the early twentieth-century. Fast and rhythmically influenced by the music of North Africa in its syncopations, this movement was the first composition that evolved entirely from my New York perspective. From the moment that the commission for And There Was a Great Calm (movements II and amp - III here) was offered, I knew the piece I was about to embark upon would end up being linked with Threnody in some way. I realized that what I had been aiming for in Threnody served as a template for this new piece, originally composed for a Remembrance Sunday concert. Musical works connected with commemoration or memorials are often suitably pensive and slow - I wanted to start with that concept, but to bring in some of the relentless urban rhythms that had been such a large influence on my life in the preceding two years. The result is that that the second movement is quiet and gentle (a moment of recollection), while the final movement is much faster and vibrant, returning to a more openly elated rendering of the start of Triptych (the texts here dealing with transmigration and the future). and nbsp - I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Bruce Ruben and Judith Clurman, as well as that of my parents, with the collation of the texts. Tarik O'Regan New York, February 2006 / Soprano, SATB Et Orchestre De Cordes

Thea Musgrave's arrangement of the Anonymous 15th century text Adam Lay YBounden is scored for Children's Voices SATB Choir and Piano a performance of which lasts around 2 minutes.A review in the September 2016 issue of Organist's Review calls this 'a haunting setting...with a bell-like cascading descant' and that this 'characterful response to the words stands comparison with the well-known Ord and Ledger settings.'

In Set Me As A Seal with words in English and Hebrew the Choral writing is as warm and freely harmonic as any mid-century English Choral literature while the sometimes jittery Piano accompaniment manifests Muhly’s Glass influences and his later movement into more modern motifs.Contemporary American composer Nico Muhly is a prolific writer and arranger who at 32 is the youngest composer ever to have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His oeuvre includes two operas and many solo pieces and works for small ensemble Orchestra and Chorus and he has collaborated widely.

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. These settings of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins , the Jesuit poet, were written while Benjamin Britten was resident in America. The title is a shorthand form of a pious inscription, Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam , often placed at the head of a piece of work. Benjamin Britten was a central figure of 20th century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. / Niveau : Assez Facile / Répertoire / Voix Mixtes

Denmark Revisited - Danish choral works for mixed voices a cappella.Edited by Jakob Faurholt and Jesper Grove Jørgensen. Transl. by Edward Broadbridge and Mikael Gjesing. The present release contains a number of Danish choral works with Danish lyrics translated into English. For many years now there has been a broad international interest in performing Danish choral works not least from the 20th century but often the Danish lyrics have been a hindrance in realising this goal outside Denmark. With this in mind we have thought it important to make Danish choral music more available through the release of selected works in which the Danishtext is translated into English. With the present choice we have endeavoured to present works which fully demonstrate the wide range and originality of Danish choral music: the particular lyrical Danish tone of Svend S. Schultz and Jørgen Jersild; the original simplicity of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen; the characteristically Danish late romanticism of P.E. Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard; and the music of composers with their own particular musical idiom such as Vagn Holmboe Bernhard Lewkovitch and Bo Holten. We have also tried to choose works with lyrics by writers that are specifically Danish in origin including Hans Christian Andersen Johannes V. Jensen and Tove Ditlevsen. Finally we have at all times been aware of the musical degree of difficulty so that the collection contains both easily approachable works as well as relatively complex ones. We hope that this release will help to spread knowledge and understanding of Danish choral music outside Denmark and thus offer the opportunity to expand the current choral repertoire that many choirs have wished.(Jesper Grove Jørgensen)  ContentsP. E. Lange-Müller: 3 Madonna SongsRued Langgaard: 3 Rosengaard SongsSvend S. Schultz: Denmark RevisitedVagn Holmboe: Songs Towards the Deep of Spring op. 85