My Song Is Love Unknown. SATB Unacc. (Css

My song is love unknown. My song is love unknown is an expressive and fluid setting of the well-known Lenten text by Samuel Crossman. McGlade highlights the phrase 'take frail flesh and die' with a sighing musical motif, before the work closes with the affirmation 'heaven was his home, but mine the tomb where he lay'.

Francis Pott’s My song is love unknown sets all of Samuel Crossman’s famous verses but one (commonly omitted when the poem is sung metrically as a hymn). The music begins with offbeat repeated chords prompted—not inappropriately—by the opening to Richard Strauss’s tone poem  Death and transfiguration. In its early stages only trebles and altos are heard. The sequential flow of Crossman’s poem is soon disrupted with particular dramatic ends in mind. After a seemingly anxious harmonic distortion of the opening chords the word ‘crucify’ arises initially as a mere mutter from the lowervoices so timed as to afford assonance with other words in the upper parts and thus remain barely discernible as if only imagined. In due course however cries of ‘Hosanna’ find themselves on a collision course with a rising tide of ‘Crucify’ during which the ‘Hosanna’ faction gradually loses heart and sheep-like defects until a single treble voice—plaintively daring to repeat the ‘offending’ word—is swept aside by a murderous outcry. In due course ‘Crucify’ recurs as a further angry climax before the opening music returns this time expanding into an extended polyphonic final section for double choir and SATB soloists. The principal climax of the work subsides into a form of epilogue crowned sorrowfully by a treble soloist to whom the music in toto has by now presented many challenges. The anthem ends in the key and mood of its opening. The character of its demanding organ part reflects the possibility that it may one day be orchestrated.   My song is love unknown was composed in memory of Michael Renton a craftsman and largely self-taught ‘Renaissance’ man who was not only a member of the Winchester cathedral congregation but also the cathedral’s stonemason. He was beloved of many in the Cathedral community; a true and

Now more than ever, the ability to sight-read fluently is an essential part of the training of musicians on an instrument. This workbook is designed to help overcome the nerves that can cause sight-reading problems by giving sound technical advice and confidence boosting tips. Step-by-step it helps the violinist to build up a complete picture of each piece, first through rhythmic and melodic exercises related to specific problems, then by the study of prepared piece with associated questions for the student to answer, and finally to the real, unprepared sight-reading test itself. Check-boxes for each stage allow both teacher and pupil to keep an eye on progress. The new editions of this popular series supports the new ABRSM string syllabus requirements from 2012, ensuring success in the sight-reading tests of graded exams. / Violon