The Gift - SATB

Based on their Grammy® Award-winning album this compilation by The King's Singers features an eclectic collection of songs. A stunning variety of folksongs spirituals and pop songs this songbook includes: Black Is theColor of My True Love's Hair Deep River The Gift to be Simple Helplessly Hoping I Love My Love She's Always a Woman The Turtle Dove Valparaiso When She Loved Me You Are the New Day You Can Close Your Eyes.

An anthem written for SATB choir and organ suitable for Harvest. Biblical text from James 1 vv 17 Romans 8 vv 32 31 & Habakkuk 3 vv 17-19.

POD-Pawe ukaszewski's Like As The Waves for SSATBB choir unaccompanied. This vocal work is a setting of Shakespeare's Sonnet LX. Like as the waves make towards the pebbledshore So do our minutes hasten to their end;Each changing place with that which goes before In sequent toil all forwards do contend.Nativity once in the main oflight Crawls to maturity wherewith being crown'd Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight And time that gave doth now his gift confound.Time doth transfix the flourishset on youth And delves the parallels in beauty's brow Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.And yet to times in hope myverse shall stand Praising thy worth despite his cruel hand. - William Shakespeare A Piano part is included for rehearsal purposes. Duration: 4 minutes.

Kirke Mechem's The Gift Of Singing for SATB choir with Piano accompaniment. This work is dedicated to the University of Kansas from whom the composer was awarded an honorary Doctor of Artsdegree in 2012.

A Welsh Prayer is a setting of a poem by Grahame Davis for SATB Choir and two Harps composed by Paul Mealor.  A Welsh Prayer was commissioned by Holywell Music and the North Wales International Music Festival as a gift to celebrate the 65th birthday of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.The piece was premiered by the Aberdeen University Chamber Choir with harpists Hannah Stone and Catrin Finch conducted by the composer on 22 September 2013 at St Asaph’s Cathedral as part of the North Wales International Music Festival.Full Score available:  NOV294228 and Parts:  NOV294250

The short motet is scored for four Voices SSSA or SSST or TTTB unaccompanied and displays Palestrina’s gift for transcendent solemnity.Palestrina is one of the towering figures of late Renaissance church music whose polyphoniccompositions remain actively performed in the Choral repertoire. He composed more than 250 motets. This one Alma Redemptor Mater for four Voices is not known to have been published during his lifetime but has been found inmanuscript form in the Collegio Romano in Rome. In 1545 the Council of Trent set out to reform various practices in the Roman Catholic Church in defense of the threats of the new Protestant movement. Clarity of scriptural wordswas one of the issues at stake especially as the polyphonic style of which Palestrina was a master overlaid many Vocal lines creating complex textures. It is possible that this motet was written following the new guidelinesof the Council.

Simple Gifts (an Amercian Shaker Song) arranged by Marie Pooler For SATB choir with Piano accompaniment.

Many believe that even if Johannes Brahms had not composed his German Requiem the Song of Destiny would still have placed him among the first rank of composers for Orchestra and Chorus. Shorter than the Requiem the Song of Destiny is composed in three movements for SATB Chorus on an unfinished work by Friedrich H lderlin. The work is widely loved and frequently performed and recorded.The Rev John Troutbeck the translator of the German original into English for this edition was a minor canon at Westminster Abbey as well as a gifted linguist who created translations of works for most of the great Choral works of the 19th century. Several of his translations havepersisted as the only English versions of their works for more than a century beyond his death in 1899.

Britten's Jubilate is written for SATB choir and Organ accompaniment.Benjamin Britten's birthday (22nd November 1913 Lowestoft) falls on St. Cecilia's Day a happy augury for the career of one of Britain's greatestcomposers. Essentially a vocal composer Britten won international fame for his operas and song-cycles. He never abandoned the principles of tonality and was a 'modern' composer who reached a mass audience and a conservative whoseoriginality no radical would sensibly deny. He shared with his predecessors Parry Vaughan Williams and Holst an intense interest in works for amateurs and children. His brilliant gifts as a pianist and conductor coupled withhis virtuosic inventiveness also led him to compose music for great performers such as the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the singers Galina Vishnevskaya Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Janet Baker.The greatestpersonal influence on his music was the Tenor Peter Pears for whom he composed many operatic and vocal roles. In 1948 Britten Pears and Eric Crozier founded the Aldeburgh Festival now one of the most respected established fornew English music. In 1952 he was made a Companion of Honour in 1965 received the Order of Merit and in 1976 the year of his death he became the first composer to receive a life peerage.Oxford University Press wasBritten's first publisher. In the early 1930s A Boy Was Born and the Simple Symphony brought him great critical acclaim and launched his compositional career. Oxford is delighted to present some previouslyunpublished pieces in collaboration with the Britten Estate. These include the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola premiered at Snape by the Britten-Pears Orchestra under Kent Nagano in June 1997; Two Portraits forString Orchestra premiered on BBC Radio 3 in December 1995 by the Northern Sinfonia under Martyn Brabbins; The World Of The Spirit the full version first performed in 1938 on the BBC Home Service the abridged

The B Flat Morning and Evening Service and Office for the Holy Communion was composed while Stanford was Organist and Master of the Choristers of Trinity College Cambridge and was already established as a composer and the energetic conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society. It is for his church music that Stanford is best remembered and this first offering demonstrates his gifts very well.Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer music teacher and conductor who was a founder of the Royal Academy of Music teaching composition to some of the greatest British composers of the twentieth century among them Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His own composition always displayed technical mastery and for a while he was a great figure in the world of British musical theatre.

Moments of Vision brings together six unaccompanied choral pieces each composed by David Matthews as gifts to friends. The music sets poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins John Keats DH Lawrence Geofrrey Hill and Thomas Hardy. Ideal as a concert suite or as individual pieces.The Faber Choral Signature Series introduces a wealth of new or recently written choral music to choirs in search of fresh repertoire. The series draws in a rich diversity of contemporary composers and includes both lighter and more challenging contemporary works offering a thrilling array of varied styles.

From one of America's best-regarded composers a choral fanfare full of passion and musical sophistication. Poetry by Philip Littell sets the tone: Music is a gift: how may I repay it? With piano. Recorded by VocalEssence; Philip Brunelle Artistic Director.