Symphonie Choral, Op. 69

Per Nørgård's A Choral Hymn (On Frostbound Earth) from 1983 for Mixed Choir SATBB. Based on 'Choral Hymn' and a fragment of 'The Year'. Orig. version 'Choral Hymn': WH32008 for SATB Orig. DK version 'Korsalme': WH32007 Programme note When in 1975 I had finished composing my 3rd Symphony (begun in 1973) I wrote three simple melodies for two psalm texts by Ole Sarvig “The Year” and “Choral Hymn”. One of these was later included in the Danish Hymnbook under the title “Året – Som året går” (The Year).  Thesethree “Sarvig tunes” were derived from the same material as the second movement of the symphony and could be harmonized together in several different tempo relationships at the same time - like fractals. This inspired me to write several choral and instrumental works in the following decade based on these melodies for instance “Frost Psalm” “Winter Cantata” “Cycles” “Cantica” and this “A choral hymn (On frostbound earth) all coloured by the Nordic and mythic poem “The year” by Sarvig the beginning of which goes :  The passing year will pass its deep  So shall our mind reach winter´s sleep.  And as the tree stands leafles bare   Is winter´s realms: our minds aware.  - Ole Sarvig (translated by Helen and Ole Sarvig)  Per Nørgård  

/ Partitions classique / Vocale - chorale / Choeur et ensemble vocal / UNIVERSAL EDITION

This exclusive collection brings together 12 of Nico Muhly?s sacred works for mixed-voice choir. These vivacious fresh and dramatic pieces will make an impact whether in the church or in the concert hall and range from the intimate Lord keep us modest when we claim to the effervescent Bright Star Carol alongside service music such as Muhly?s Third Service. All are accessible to learn and offer choirs a new slant on contemporary choral music at its very best.  'Choral music has always been at the emotional core of my musical output. Even when I?m writing large-scale orchestral works (or indeed chamber music) I alwaysfind myself returning to techniques and textures I?ve greedily stolen from centuries of music from Tye to Howells early and recent. I try to design my own choral music primarily for use in worship where the measure of the success of the piece is if it helps guide the listeners? ears upwards and elsewhere as sacred architecture and the various rituals of the church themselves are meant to do. The specificity of music heard only in certain seasons is for me an important and thrilling element of the choral tradition: a Beethoven Symphony is welcome at any point in the year but an anthem for Candlemas works only then at a certain time of day and on a certain day of the year. With this functional spirit at the heart of the compositional process I hope that the music collected here makes equal sense in a concert setting. These works range from ordinaries of the mass to hymns to motets and represent a decade and a half of output.' - Nico Muhly

The vocal score to the Choral Finale of Beethoven's famous Symphony No.9 In D Minor 'Choral' Op.125 for Soprano Alto Tenor and Bass Soloists SATB Chorus with Piano accompaniment. The text is based on Schiller's Ode To Joy and is presented in both English and German with the English version by Henry G. Chapman.

Music When Soft Voices Die is a major poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1821 and first published in Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1824 in London. The poem is one of the most anthologised influential and well-known of Shelley's works.Many composers and musicians have set the poem to music with vocal accompaniment.The excellent version for SATB Chorus with Piano accompaniment composed by Geoffrey Bush is now available as part of the Elkin Choral Series.Geoffrey Bush was a British composer organist and scholar of 20th-centuryEnglish music. His compositions include 5 operas 2 symphonies choral pieces such as his Christmas Cantata and many songs generally in the lieder style.

No. 2 - The Light of Heaven-The Light Of Heaven from Garden of Light (A Millennium Symphony) for soprano mezzo-soprano tenor baritone chorus and orchestra was commissioned for the Third Millennium Celebration by Walt Disney Pictures premiered in October 1999 by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur with the New York Choral Artists and The American Boychoir. Arranged for Soprano Tenor SATB Choir and Piano accompaniment.

No. 5 - In Our Children's Embrace-In Our Children’s Embrace from Garden of Light (A Millennium Symphony) for soprano mezzo-soprano tenor baritone chorus and orchestra was commissioned for the Third Millennium Celebration by Walt DisneyPictures premiered in October 1999 by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur with the New York Choral Artists and The American Boychoir. Arranged for Soprano Mezzo-Soprano Tenor Baritone SATB Choir Treble Voicesand Piano accompaniment.

Carl Rütti's choral music is 'sensuous and exuberant by turns combining dazzling rhythms and soaring melodies with distinctively lush harmonies' (Choir and Organ Magazine).The composer writes: 'The Three Carols were initiated in 1996 by my friend Stephen Jackson (conductor of the BBC Symphony Chorus) for a Carol concert by the Wooburn Singers to whom they are also dedicated. They were originally written for brass quintet and choir. I picked three texts out of the enormous choice of traditional Carols which could form three parts: Andante - Adagio - Presto.'The three carols are: I Wonder as I Wander (Andante) O Little Town of Bethlehem(Adagio) and Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (Presto).

Born in 1977 in Latvia Eriks Esenvalds is an original and sought-after voice of the Baltic music tradition. Commissioners have included the Latvian Radio Choir and State Choir ‘Latvija’ the Britten Sinfonia Trinity College Choir Cambridge Temple University (USA) the Boston Symphony Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. His work is recorded on a number of CDs. Eriks Esenvalds is a former Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College University of Cambridge.

Symphony No. 3 (1972-1975) by Per Nørgård. Per Nørgård's third symphony commissioned by The Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (conductor Herbert Blomstedt) was premiered in Copenhagen in 1976 and received wide attention. The work gives comprehensive expression to a new realm of musical experience which the composer began to explore toward the end of the 1960s. While the first period in Nørgårds production in the 1050s represents his personal interpretation of the Nordic music tradition – evidenced for example in his “Piano Sonata No. 2” (1957) and“Constellations” for chamber orchestra (1958) – and the second period in the 1960s saw him working with serial techniques musical collage and a new sound-palette - especially in the orchestral works “Iris” (196-67) and “Luna” (1967) – with “Voyage into the Golden Screen” (1968) Nørgård arrived at a new compositional technique based on the use of a special form of a so-called “infinity series” a principle of musical motion to be applied to all kinds of scales (chromatic diatonic et cetera). It is characteristic that that Nørgård in the 1970s chose to cultivate diatonic infinity series already evident in the mythological opera “Gilgamesh” (1971-72). Thus the Symphony No. 3 begun directly after the opera combines the infinity series major and minor scales the partial series of natural harmonics and “sub-harmonics” (Nørgårds terminology) with rhythmic patterns based on the Golden Section (the Golden Mean) in a nexus of synchronous yet disparate elements which serve the composers vision of musical coherence.. The works which followed the symphony – the operas “Siddharta” (1975-79) and “The Divine Circus” (1981-82) and Symphony No. 4 (1981) – usher a new

From Symphonic Adiemus-Symphonic Adiemus presents twelve numbers from the Adiemus series in dynamic new scorings for SATB choir and full symphony orchestra.Since it was first heard in 1994 Adiemus has captured the imagination of music lovers worldwide thanks to its unique combination of classical principles with the flavours of world and ethnic music.Symphonic Adiemus includes numbers from the first three albums – Songs of Sanctuary Cantata Mundi and Dances of Time. Recorded on Decca 5793828 by the London Philharmonic Choir and the Adiemus Symphony Orchestra of Europe.

From Symphonic Adiemus-Symphonic Adiemus presents twelve numbers from the Adiemus series in dynamic new scorings for SATB choir and full symphony orchestra.Since it was first heard in 1994 Adiemus has captured the imagination of music lovers worldwide thanks to its unique combination of classical principles with the flavours of world and ethnic music.Symphonic Adiemus includes numbers from the first three albums – Songs of Sanctuary Cantata Mundi and Dances of Time. Recorded on Decca 5793828 by the London Philharmonic Choir and the Adiemus Symphony Orchestra of Europe.

Ode to Joy - Final Movement of Symphony No.9 in d Op.125-The Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125 is the final complete symphony composed from 1822 to 1824 by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. For SATB and Piano.

Symphony No. 3 for Orchestra and Mixed Choir SATB by Søren Nils Eichebrg (2015). Poems Qu Yuan and David Vogel.Premiered by The Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra April 10 2015.