for SSA and piano Singing Children is an upbeat, optimistic piece. Bob has adapted a song from the Elizabethan play ‘Locrine’, attributed to Charles Tilney, with lyrics that profess the singers’ overwhelming, joyous love of singing. Ideal for any children’s choir concert.
for CCBar and piano This beautiful arrangement of the well-loved folksong gradually grows from simple one- and two-part vocal writing to a delightful display of interweaving imitation in three parts, before an eventual ebbing away. The flowing piano accompaniment provides harmonic support throughout.
Oliver Tarney is currently Head of Composition and Singing at Winchester College. He has written widely for children and adults, amateurs and professionals. Major works include his Missa Media Nocte – published last year by OUP.
I remembersets a text reflecting on the wonder of the natural world and the people who shape our lives. Also available in a version for upper voices and as a solo song.
Noel Rawsthorne (1929 – 2019) was a pupil of Harold Dawber at the Royal Manchester College of Music and in 1958, the Liverpool Bluecoat Society of Arts gave him an award provided by the Gulbenkian Foundation which enabled him to continue his studies, first in Italy with Fernando Germani and then in Paris with Marcel Dupré. He was organist at Liverpool Cathedral from 1955 to 1980. Whilst there, he composed for both choir and organ. A fruitful collaboration with Peter Kennerley produced a number of effective choral pieces for children.
This light-hearted arrangement of a traditional Christmas folksong is for children’s choir in unison with piano. Rhythmic vocal sound effects are added to each verse and these build up cumulatively as the song progresses. A coda recalls each of the animals met previously, with a brief reminder of their rhythm before the music comes to an emphatic ending.
SATB with divisi and piano (or organ). This piece was commissioned in March 2021 by Tricia Rees-Jones for the Somerset-based chamber choir Swan Singers to celebrate their return to live performance after the Covid-19 lockdown. It begins very gently and opens up gradually, like a flower. The text is by the composer.
“The words capture the moment perfectly and I think the piece is incredibly moving.” – Tricia Rees-Jones
SATB and piano. On 14th March 2020 social media featured video of quarantined Italians singing to each other from their balconies. The poet and librettist Euan Tait shared one of these and attached a poem which he had written. I found it moving and asked his permission to set it to music, which he generously gave. This song, finished on 21st March, was the result.
This setting of the 15th century text I sing of a Maiden balances a sense of ancient modality with a contemporary folk twist which should have broad appeal to singers young and old. An initial lyrical melody and a counter melody combine to create accessible and effective harmonies, with a third simple harmonic line adding interest to the final two verses. Irregular time signatures allow the singers to pay particular attention to the flow of this ancient text. The flexibility of this piece will be attractive to conductors wishing to programme something for upper (or indeed lower) voices, as either a trio, sextet or full ensemble.
I sing of a Maiden is published in the Volume 2, upper voices sacred music anthology published by Multitude of Voyces and is also available as a digital download (in 2 two different keys).
The BBC Singers, directed by Owain Park, have performed and recorded this piece for Radio 3.
This mixed voice piece is ideal for choirs looking for a challenge, and perfect for your Christmas concert. It combines a contemporary feel in the verses with an unfettered mediaeval jubilance in the choruses. Choirs such as Joyful Company of Singers, Choros Amici, Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and Texas Tech University choir have all loved the technical challenges within the work and the deliciously complex final chorus, complete with top C#. Scores can be purchased either through Boosey.com (£1.90, bulk discount is available) or direct from the composer. Versions available for a cappella choir, with piano, with organ or with brass quintet.
This setting of a William Shakespeare text, Love Alters Not, and is self-published and available here.
‘I trialled it with a number of my choirs on Zoom earlier this year, with this quickly rendered backing track which hopefully gives a fair flavour of it.’
It is destined to be the middle movement of a set of three, with movements 1 and 3 still in development.
See Chris talking about Choirs for Climate at the exhibition. Visit Chris’s ‘virtual’ stand at the exhibition.
Both of these pieces are part of the Choirs For Climate project. They are released under Creative Commons with permission of the poets, so no watermark required – they can both be used freely from the scores provided here. I am happy to provide backing tracks for either on request please email.
Read about Dennis here. All of my compositions are unpublished and PDF perusal scores of any of them are available for interested musical directors. I am happy to supply unwatermarked PDFs at no cost for choirs wishing to perform any of the pieces. For more information, please email.
Christmas Carol
For unaccompanied SATB with words by Sara Teasdale, composed last year during lockdown for members of the Linsdale Singers to record virtually
for SATB and organ This energetic setting of words by St Ambrose of Milan is a real showstopper. With pop-influences and a sparkling organ part, Young effortlessly fuses modern and traditional sound worlds, while changes in key and metre build up to an invigorating finish.
for SATB unaccompanied. This setting of Edward Caswall’s well-known text shows all the hallmarks of McGlade’s characteristic style, with changing time signatures, beguiling chromaticisms, and a beautiful, fluid melody.
Becky is newly signed to OUP, and there is a ‘Meet the Composer – In Conversation with Becky McGlade’ on the recorded steam of this Festival if you’d like to hear her talk about her work and hear more of her pieces.
for SSATB unaccompanied. This atmospheric setting of the celebrated poem ‘April Rain Song’ by the Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes captures the sense of comfort and security while listening to rainfall. The ebb and flow, careful phrasing, and rich harmony make this an ideal ensemble piece.
Robert A. Harris is Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, Illinois. He has been a visiting professor at Wayne State, the University of Texas in Austin, and the University of South Africa in Pretoria.
This service in song is a joyous celebration of hope and peace for the Christmas season. Using carols, narration, congregational participation and original anthems, this approachable work is the perfect choice for choirs of any size. Extra musical suggestions offer directors creative options for presentation, and the wonderfully crafted and colorful orchestrations by Brant Adams further enhance the festive potential of this thoughtful work.
The opening percussion in I Am Power mimics the sound of marching in this work that reflects on the power of young people to create meaningful change through protests and speaking out against injustice.
Sarah MacDonald is a Canadian-born UK-based organist, conductor, and composer. She is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral’s Girl Choristers. She has toured extensively as a conductor and organist and is in demand as a director of international residential courses. She has made over 35 commercial recordings, and her liturgical works are performed regularly throughout the world. She is a Fellow of the RCO and writes a popular monthly column for ‘The American Organist’ magazine. Sarah received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music, and she is a Patron of the Society of Women Organists.
Antony Baldwin was born in London in 1957. He was a chorister at Southwark Cathedral, and before he left school he gained an ARCO diploma with the paperwork prize. An organ scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford followed, during which time he gained the FRCO (CHM), FTCL and LRAM in organ teaching. Postgraduate studies were undertaken at the University of Durham. He then embarked upon a career in teaching, organ-playing and choir-training. For 27 years, he was Director of Music at the American Church in London. Until 2016, he made regular visits to the United States as a recitalist and formed his own chamber choir in California. He currently lives in Scotland where he is organist of St. Ninian’s Old Kirk in Stirling and is a freelance performer and composer.
A setting of the poem by Wendy Cope for SATB with optional piano accompaniment, commissioned in 2015 by Janet Lincé and Choros. Recorded by the choir for their CD: A sense of Advent – Carols and motetsfor choir sung by CHOROS and conducted by Janet Lincé.
The recording features an a cappella performance. The optional independent piano part includes brief quotes from two traditional carols, which can also be sung if wished.
This piece won the inaugural Jesus College Composition Competition in March 2020. The text is a prayer by John Henry Newman:
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over and our work is done; then Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.
Jesus College Choir conducted by Richard Pinel premiered the piece in 2021
Both of these are from our new Christmas collection, RSCM Carols for Sopranos, Altos and Unison Lower Voices, which contains 42 carols, all written during lockdown!
Please visit Upper Voice Repertoire resource for review. All pieces are available to learn on MyChoralCoach.
Shruthi Rajasekar, born in 1996, is an Indian-American composer and vocalist exploring identity, community, and joy. Chosen by the Guardian newspaper as a composer ‘who will enrich your life’, Shruthi creates intersectional music that draws from her unique background in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical idioms. Recent projects include works for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the Minneapolis-based VocalEssence, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Psappha. Shruthi has won numerous honours for her compositions, including the Khorikos ORTUS International Award, the Composers Guild of New Jersey Award, and the Global Women in Music Award from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights & Donne in Musica Adkins Chiti Foundation. Her music has reached hundreds of thousands of listeners on Spotify’s Classical Releases, BBC Radio 3, and radio stations across the USA. Read more…
Sarah Cattley is an award-winning composer based near Cambridge, where she studied Music at Newnham College. Sarah was Caritas Chamber Choir’s Composer of the Year 2017–18 and she enjoys a close relationship with the choir with her music is available on their two CDs.
In 2019, the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music commissioned Sarah to write a set of Preces and Responses, which were premiered during the festival evensong and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, conducted by Christopher Batchelor. In the same year, she was joint winner of the National Centre for Early Music’s Young Composer Award, with her piece Dream Fever for bass viol and electronics, which was recorded for Radio 3’s Early Music Show by Liam Byrne, and has since also been broadcast on Resonance FM.
Sarah is very inspired by people and events of the past; previous pieces have been about Charlotte Brontë, echoes of Monteverdi’s music ringing round a Venetian basilica, and the suffragist links between composer Hubert Parry and Newnham College. She also creates poetry to be set to music, both for her own use and for composer Janet Wheeler. Wheeler’s Tomorrow is Today, commissioned by Papagena, sets a specially conceived text by Sarah about daybreak and the dawn chorus. Read more…
A composer chiefly of sacred choral works written in a boldly tonal idiom and with a polished command of vocal ensemble, Gareth Treseder, born 1985, studied at Bristol University and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, of which he is an Honorary Associate. A professional singer, he is a Gentleman of the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, and has performed with a variety of distinguished groups, including the Monteverdi Choir, the BBC Singers, Sonoro and the Eric Whitacre Singers. In 2019 his setting of Ivor Gurney’s poetry, The Songs I Had for chorus and orchestra, was premiered at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival. Marking the hundredth anniversary of the First World War, his cantata In Flanders Fields received its US premiere courtesy of the Harvard University Choir, and his carol Le sommeil de l’Enfant Jésu, written in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Support and the Choirs Against Cancer initiative, has been widely performed across the UK. Read more…
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Score
Recording
