John Tavener: Choral Music: SSA: Vocal Score

Music played an enormous role in the works of William Shakespeare, while his own sonnets, poems and soliloquies have provided continuing inspiration for many composers through the years. The Novello Shakespeare Choral Collection, inspired by the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death in 2016, is an exciting anthology of choral works that are settings of Shakespeare's words. For choirs of all types and abilities, this collection has been edited by David Wordsworth so that all the pieces are fantastic both to sing and hear.The collection features some beautiful settings that have well and truly stood the test of time, such as Thomas Arne's Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind and Henry Leslie's How Sweet The Moonlight Sleeps. More recent settings from 20th century and contemporary composers include Ernest Moeran's Sigh No More, Ladies, Gary Carpenter's Lo, Here, The Gentle Lark and John Tavener's Fear No More and Look In Thy Glass.Not only this, the Shakespeare Choral Collection boasts several works that were specially commissioned, including John Joubert's Be Not Afeard, Richard Sisson's Light Thickens and Pawel Lukaszewki's Weary With Toil, I Haste Me To My Bed. Some pieces have never appeared before in print, such as those by Kevin Olsen, Bernard Hughes and John Gardner. These songs truly are a joy to perform, with some relatively simple arrangements that are purely fun to sing, while some more complex settings that will be thoroughly rewarding for choirs and audiences alike.A total of 26 fantastic works comprise The Novello Shakespeare Choral Collection, which would work as a wonderful concert programme on its own, or could provide a wealth of options for choirs looking to expand their repertoire with a range of unique settings. Also included is a fascinating introduction by editor David Wordsworth, and notes describing each piece.Words written by indisputably the greatest writer in the English language can only be matched with music by composers of talent and renown such as these. The Novello Shakespeare Choral Collection is an essential anthology of stunning settings of beautiful words which will be performed and enjoyed for many years to come. / Choeur Mixte (SATB)

This work was commissioned by the Verbal Arts Centre to mark the opening of its new building at Mall Wall and Stable Lane. 'W.B. Yeats is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He wrote The Motherof God in between two of his most magnificent poems - Byzantium and Vacillation. The words alone inspired this setting. I read them several times and then the music came to me fully grown.' - JohnTavener

This prayer is the foundation of Orthodox faith in the Holy Trinity. Says Tavener: 'In setting it to music I have tried to capture something of the deep conjunction and repentance which lie at the heart ofOrthodoxy'.This work for unaccompanied SATB choir and SSAAA semichorus was commissioned by the Cambridge Tavener Choir. It was first performed in April 1996 at Jesus College Chapel Cambridge by the Cambridge TavenerChoir conducted by Owen Rees.

John Tavener's The Martydom Of Saint Stephen for Solo Horn Double SATB Choir and Organ. Commissioned by the Metropolitan and Cathedral Chapter of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Vienna. First performed on 16thMarch 2015 at St Stephen’s Cathedral Vienna by the Cathedral Choir conducted by Markus Landerer. Vienna's iconic gothic cathedral is dedicated to the first Christian martyr and the Metropolitan and Chapter chosewith discrimination and imagination when they asked John Tavener to write this work setting the account of the stoning of St Stephen from the Acts of the Apostles. The choral writing is far from difficult and rich double-choireffects from staggered entries singing the same music creates an impressive sense of the numinous. Tavener fans will not be surprised that the composer suggests that extra male voices might be required. The virtuoso horn part marked 'ferocious - wild and violent' is directed to be played from a gallery and suggests the hail of stones and hatred directed at the saint. The organ mostly offers brief interjections and chordal support until the last 18bars a lullaby(?) for the saint who 'fell asleep in the Lord' as he was being stoned. John himself went to his final sleep not long after composing this majestic work: Eternal memory! - Organists' Review

Marienhymne is a piece on a smaller scale than Tavener’s dramatic cantatas and is written for unaccompanied choir and semiChorus. Tavener was drawn to writer and philosopher Frithjof Schuon’s vision of the Virgin Mary asuniversal and primordial Woman and has used an extract from his work Maria as the libretto in German for this piece. The composer calls for ‘radiance and ecstasy’ and also a ‘great distance’ between the main choir and the echochoir.John Tavener was that rare creature a composer of serious music and serious religious music who also achieved commercial success. He burst into the popular consciousness with the performance of his Song for Athene at thefuneral of Princess Diana but had been a highly respected and frequently-performed composer since the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale in 1968.

Music played an enormous role in the works of William Shakespeare while his own sonnets poems and soliloquies have provided continuing inspiration for many composers through the years. The Novello Shakespeare Choral Collection inspired by the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death in 2016 is an exciting anthology of choral works that are settings of Shakespeare's words. For choirs of all types and abilities this collection has been edited by David Wordsworth so that all the pieces are fantastic both to sing and hear. The collection features some beautiful settings that have well and truly stood the test of time such as Thomas Arne'sBlow Blow Thou Winter Wind and Henry Leslie's How Sweet The Moonlight Sleeps. More recent settings from 20th century and contemporary composers include Ernest Moeran's Sigh No More Ladies Gary Carpenter's Lo Here The Gentle Lark and John Tavener's Fear No More and Look In Thy Glass. Not only this the Shakespeare Choral Collection boasts several works that were specially commissioned including John Joubert's Be Not Afeard Richard Sisson's Light Thickens and Pawel Lukaszewki's Weary With Toil I Haste Me To My Bed. Some pieces have never appeared before in print such as those by Kevin Olson Bernard Hughes and John Gardner. These songs truly are a joy to perform with some relatively simple arrangements that are purely fun to sing while some more complex settings that will be thoroughly rewarding for choirs and audiences alike. A total of 26 fantastic works comprise The Novello Shakespeare Choral Collection which would work as a wonderful concert programme on its own or could provide a wealth of options for choirs looking to expand their repertoire with a range of unique settings. Also included is a fascinating

We Will Remember Them: Music For Remembrance is a collection of some of the finest pieces of choral music on the theme of remembrance.We Will Remember Them: Music For Remembrance is suitable for church cathedral school youth and community choirs. It contains music appropriate for Remembrance Sunday services and beautiful pieces suitable for concerts memorial and funeral services and other acts of remembrance and reflection.We Will Remember Them: Music For Remembrance includes classic choral works such as Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei Edgar Bainton’s And I saw a new heaven and WilliamHarris’s Bring us O Lord God alongside other works by well-loved composers including John Tavener Richard Rodney Paul Mealor and Eric Whitacre.New arrangements such as David Hill’s choral reworking of Edward Elgar’s Nimrod are included with other new works by some of the best contemporary composers.In a glowing review in the January/February 2015 edition of Choir & Organ Jeremy Summerly writes of the appropriateness of many of these works for Remembrance concert programmes and the effectiveness of a great number of these choral pieces.

In Memory was written in memory of Glen Schaefer and all the departed souls of America. The words come from the Orthodox Funeral Service and from a text by Mother Thekla. For SATB Choir A Cappella. John Tavener: The musicshould be sung with a shining solemnity and should ideally be performed in a church or other building with reverberant acoustics. The solo bass sections refer to St Hermann of Alaska (the pre-eminent Orthodox saint of theAmericas) and should be performed in the manner of a Byzantine pasltis.

Commissioned by the Northern Illinois University Choral Department Eric A. Johnson Director of Choral Activities and the Lynne M. Waldeland Endowed Fund for Choral Music. First performance on 2nd December 2007 at NorthernIllinois University by the Northern Illinois University Choir conducted by Eric A. Johnson D.M.A.

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.'