Format : Vocal Score
Affirming Our Faith and Freedom-Powerful arrangements of stirring patriotic favorites are woven with compelling narrative to create God Bless America an affirmation of our faith and freedom. Using the moving Irving Berlin classic as a centerpiece this15-minute presentation will heighten your patriotic concert with a fresh and majestic touch. Songs include My Country 'Tis of Thee Battle Hymn of the Republic God of Our Fathers America the Beautiful God Bless America.Available separately: : SATB Preview CD ChoirTrax CD CD 10-Pak Instrumental Pak (O) Preview Pak Rehearsal TraxPak Soprano/Alto Rehearsal TraxPak Tenor/Bass.
SKU: HL.370173
ISBN 9781705146422. UPC: 840126993462. 6.75x10.5x0.029 inches.
Mark Hayes is one of our finest arrangers and now he has used his expertise in vocal arranging on this Irving Berlin treasure from the American Song Book. A cappella voices richly present the well-known lyric, capturing its emotional patriotism. Beautiful and dynamic musical interpretation weaves throughout the piece, building to a glorious final “home sweet home.” For “game day” performances, the piece can be shortened by simply beginning at meas. 24. No matter the event or concert, this is a fantastic selection to be sung all year long!
SKU: HL.277282
UPC: 840126915006. 6.75x10.5 inches.
Program note:Looking Up is a piece for large chorus and orchestra, and is in three sections, played without pause. In the 16th century, a variety of psalters in meter were printed in England, with the idea of making psalm-singing something that could happen easily at home, with the rhyming meter being an aid to memorization. These translations are wonderful exercises in brevity and sometimes clumsy rhymemaking, and were usually prefaced by a lengthy explanation as to their merits; the title of one of the first such volumes in English is: The Psalter of Dauid newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be reade and songe of al men. I thought it would be appropriate to set one of these introductions, and the first section of Looking Up sets the preface to Thomas Ravenscroft's psalter (1621), in which he writes: “The singing of Psalmes (assay the Doctors) comforteth the sorrowfull, pacifieth the angry, strengtheneth the weake, humbleth the proud, gladdeth the humble, stirres up the slow, reconcileth enemies, lifteth up the heart to heavenly things, and uniteth the Creature to his Creator.”It begins meditatively, but eventually grows agitated and fervent, with a vision of the “quire of Angels and Saints” “redoubling anddescanting” - an ecstatic and terrifying vision of the skies opening up. Ravenscroft then encourages the use of instrumental musicfor worship, at which point, a long, acrobatic orchestral interlude with jagged edges antagonizes the choir, who sing a kind of private, anxious meditation on two pitches.One of the most delicious biblical texts is an Apocryphal prayer known as the Benedicite or the Prayer of the Three Children (the same who were rescued by an angel after King Nebuchadnezzar tried to have them burnt in an oven for not bowing to his image). The text is repetitive, obsessive, and a gift to composers - each line is an invocation of an element of the natural world, followed by the phrase, “blesse ye the Lord, praise him & magnify him for ever.” In Looking Up, the setting begins with three solo voices, and then grows to include the whole choir, itemizing the whole of creation. The idea that these boys are spared from the furnace and then five minutes later are saying, “O ye the fire and warming heate, blesse ye the Lord...” has always felt very loaded to me, and the orchestra plays with this conflict between joyful praise and a more terrible (in the 16th-century sense) awefor the divine.The text for the third, and shortest, section is taken from Christopher Smart's (1722-1771) A Song to David, purportedly written during his confinement in a mental asylum. This ode to King David points out how David, as the author of some of the Psalms, observes the whole world from the “clustering spheres” to the “nosegay in the vale.&rdquo.
SKU: HL.14032615
SKU: CA.3501300
ISBN 9790007164607. Language: German/English.
In the 19th century the motet Lob und Ehre und Weisheit und Dank BWV Anh. 162 had a place in the traditional six motets by Johann Sebastian Bach for a while - until it was recognised as a composition by the Leipzig Bach pupil Georg Gottfried Wagner (1698-1756). Under the name of its true author, Wagner's magnificent motet quickly fell into obscurity - at least in Germany. But in the Anglo-American world, the motet continued to be performed with English text. A good reason to publish the first critical edition of the work in two languages.
SKU: OU.9780193400955
ISBN 9780193400955. 12 x 8 inches.
for SSAA unaccompanied Originally written for SATB, this hymn to the 'Queen of the Heavens' is a glorious work, replete with dramatic changes of mood and texture. The majestic chords of the opening bars quickly give way to a spirited exchange between the voices. This pattern of contrasts is repeated throughout the piece before the final jubilant chords fade away to pianissimo. This is an approachable and rewarding motet, appropriate for any time of the year and in particular, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Eastertide. The original SATB version of Regina Caeli has also been recorded by the renowned American choir, the Phoenix Chorale, and released on a Grammy award-winning CD by Chandos (Spotless Rose CHSA 5066).