John Rutter: English Church Music 2 Canticles: SATB: Vocal Score

Oxford Choral Classics: English Church Music assembles in two volumes around 100 of the finest examples of English sacred choral music of the past five centuries.The first volume dedicated to anthems and motets presents both favourite and lesser-known works from the exceptional Renaissance polyphony of Taverner Tallis and Byrd through the Restoration led by Purcell to the glorious works of the great nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers including Wesley Elgar Stanford Vaughan Williams and Howells.The volume contains a number of more substantial works including Mendelssohn's Hear my prayer Stainer's I saw theLord and Naylor's Vox dicentis: Clama as well as a wonderful selection of shorter pieces from Gibbons's O Lord in thy wrath to Walton's Set me as a seal upon thine heart. With the second companion volume of canticles and responses this bipartite collection presents a comprehensive survey of English sacred music at its best.

John Rutter's My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord (Magnificat) for SATB and Organ.This elegant setting of the Magnificat a homage to and in the style of composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford whose own Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis settings are staples of the English church repertoire. An accompanying setting of the Nunc Dimittis (Depart In Peace) is also available from Oxford University Press.

Both a dedicated carol singer and an authority on the history of English music Nicholas Temperley here offers a unique book of 37 carols dating from the fifteenth century to the present.For over fifty years he has sung edited and composed carols each Christmas and in Christmas is Coming the fruit of his enthusiasm is combined with his wealth of knowledge to produce an outstanding and original new collection. As John Rutter observes in his Foreword the book does not pointlessly duplicate what can be found in many other carol books but has a personality and purpose of its own.Twenty-two fresh and practical arrangements include carols from Austria France Germany Mexico Poland and the USA alongside music both rare and familiar from the rich heritage of the English carol tradition. As well as eight of his personal favourites from J. S. Bach to Charles Ives the author includes seven new compositions of his own settings of medieval and traditional texts that reveal his skill as a choral composer whose command of style ranges from the humorous to the profound.In addition to sample programmes and translations there are invaluable notes on the performance and history of individual items plus an historical summary of the genre as a whole: everything in fact to make Christmas is Coming an indispensable companion for singers who wish to enrich the seasonal repertoire for concerts churches and traditional Yuletide carolling.