Edward Gregson

Welcome is a work composed by Edward Gregson arranged for Upper Voices and Piano. It was originally composed for boys' voices Organ Brass and Percussion in 1996 but ten years later Gregson created a new version especially for the Kinder Children's Choir of the High Peak. This latter version appears here and lasts around 4 minutes. The text of Welcome consists of the word 'Welcome' repeated numerous times in a variety of languages from English to various European languages to Hebrew and Arabic. Gregson's idea was to provide a fitting way to welcome a new and diverse audience into a newconcert hall designed for a new Millennium. The voices are divided into as many as six parts in certain places but it's left to the conductor to decide on how to distribute these parts depending on the size and make-up of the choir. The work is suitable for performance by any mixture of upper voices from children's choirs to female voices. In the January/February 2016 issue of Choir & Organ Geoffrey Webber calls Welcome 'an ear-catching start for any concert programme.'

The original version of this setting of the well-known traditional English folk song was completed in 1974 and was commissioned by Rachel McMillan College of Education (where Gregson was a lecturer at the time) for its Music Department choir (female voices). It then had the somewhat unusual instrumentation of spinet flute and string quartet. In 2017 Gregson made a revision for performance and publication in a new version for upper voices and piano

The original version of this setting of the well-known traditional English folk song was completed in 1974, and was commissioned by Rachel McMillan College of Education (where Gregson was a lecturer at the time) for its Music Department choir (female voices). It then had the somewhat unusual instrumentation of spinet, flute and string quartet. In 2017 Gregson made a revision for performance and publication in a new version for upper voices and piano / Ssa Et Piano