A Second Morning Star Choir Book

SKU: MN.50-4064

UPC: 688670540646. English. Psalms 30.

Commissioned by a church choir in honor of their director, this piece has a flowing accompaniment and energetic choir parts. The text, based on Psalm 30, brings a message of joy after darkness, dancing after sorrow. Accessible SATB writing with some brief divisi and one short a cappella passage. Duration: 3:15.

SKU: MN.56-0108

UPC: 688670221255. English, Latin. Psalms 142; Jeremiah 3:48, 52, 56.

Invictus: A Passion addresses one of the world’s most powerful stories through the lens of the modern world. The texts, written or inspired by women, describe not only human suffering and persecution but also the human capacity for love and humility in the face of tyranny. Composer Howard Goodall is uniquely suited to bring these texts to life with music of emotional clarity and sweeping force. This excerpt is scored for soprano solo, SATB choir and piano. This fourth movement of the larger work is inspired by the extraordinary story of Irena Sendler née Krzyżanowska, a Polish nurse and head of Żegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews in the Second World War, whose personal interventions saved the lives of approximately 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto, smuggling them to safety, acts of humanitarian bravery that eventually caused her arrest and torture by the Gestapo. She is honoured as Righteous Amongst the Nations at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. The Latin texts of this movement are taken from the Book of Lamentations (“My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause…”) and from Psalm 142, the Old Testament being the meeting-point of Sendler’s Catholicism and the Jewish tradition of those whose lives she saved. Duration 6:19.

SKU: MN.56-0055

UPC: 688670220586. English.

Arranged for SATB choir, two keyboards, strings, and optional harp, with soprano, tenor (optional) and baritone soloists, this fresh and unorthodox interpretation reflects on the words of the Latin Mass by juxtaposing them with poems in English. For soprano solo and SATB choir, this movement begins with the choir on the English text by Phineas Fletcher (1633). A 32-measure soprano solo follows, which covers the majority of the English text. The soloist then begins the “Recordare,” a calm, descending melodic line with the choir singing the opening “Drop, drop” motif as accompaniment. The choir then concludes with the slow, descending lines “Jesu pie, Jesu pie.” Duration 4:04.

SKU: MN.56-0106

UPC: 688670221231. English, Latin.

Invictus: A Passion addresses one of the world’s most powerful stories through the lens of the modern world. The texts, written or inspired by women, describe not only human suffering and persecution but also the human capacity for love and humility in the face of tyranny. Composer Howard Goodall is uniquely suited to bring these texts to life with music of emotional clarity and sweeping force. This movement, scored for soprano solo, SATB choir and piano, expresses the unimaginable pain felt by a mother seeing her child torn away from her at a slave auction. To this harrowing account are appended the words of William Wilberforce, spoken in the House of Commons on 18th April 1791, “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” Duration 6:47.

SKU: MN.56-0049

UPC: 688670220524. English.

Arranged for SATB choir, two keyboards, strings, and optional harp, with soprano, tenor (optional) and baritone soloists, this fresh and unorthodox interpretation reflects on the words of the Latin Mass by juxtaposing them with poems in English. The “Kyrie” uses Francis Quarles’ “Close now thine eyes and rest secure” as the opposing English text. After the choir begins the requiem text in Latin (“Requiem aeternam” through the “Kyrie eleison,”) the soprano soloist has a 27-measure solo in which the English text appears. Then the solo is repeated over choir accompaniment and the opening Latin text reappears to close the movement. Duration 9:13.

SKU: WD.080689243233

UPC: 080689243233.

Arranged with Middle-Eastern flair, Graham Kendrick’s inspiring hymn is reimagined by David T. Clydesdale in a Christmas setting; moving from Advent to Christ’s birth to the Second Coming, “Morning Star” would make a terrific program finale.

SKU: MN.56-0075

UPC: 688670220784. Latin.

This mass setting was commissioned by the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and first performed on Ascension Sunday, 1994. Suitable for both church and concert use, the music is both lyrical and dramatic. The “Sanctus” begins quietly, with divided sopranos trading off on a major second in a mysterious and meditative way. Parts add and build until the basses enter with a cantus firmus of sorts. The major second continues to figure prominently in the ensuing material. The movement ends with a simple melody repeated in unison (“Hosanna in excelsis”) fading away into the distance. Duration 3:55.

SKU: MN.50-0079

UPC: 688670500794. English.

A simple but transcendent setting of the chant tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, this movement from Kneeling in Bethlehem begins with men in unison against a handbell ostinato. The second stanza is women in unison with organ. The third stanza is full choir in unison, with organ and bell chords punctuating occasionally. The remaining two stanzas are also in unison, with the final one set against full organ and random ringing. Requires 11 bells out of the four octave range.

SKU: MN.50-6197

UPC: 688670561979. English.

A joyous text in which we are all called to dance with the energies found around us. The music matches this energy, with the piano accompaniment swirling through sixteenth note patterns within the 6/8 meter. The second stanza, God's breath, is quieter. The piano calms a bit on the third stanza, Our own amazing earth, and the fourth stanza echoes the exuberance of the first. Fun and different! Duration 3:30.