If You Could Hear My Voice

Composer's Notes:Heavenly Things is my fourteenth song-cycle but the first with piano accompaniment. I mention this because when I was asked to write this piece my first reaction was ‘what can I make of amedium that seems to me quintessentially 19th century’ and I was doubtful that I could produce anything that I would be happy with. Then I went to hear Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau and was so impressed by the magicand intensity of their performance that I saw a ‘way in’ to what at first had seemed a problem. The choice of poems was obviously going to be crucial and I chose the Donne Holy Sonnets because of the dramatic possibilities theyoffer and the huge range of emotion that they encompass. In these settings the piano is always more than a mere accompaniment it tends either to be in dialogue with the voice or to have its own musical agenda which the voicereacts to in an independent but parallel way. Geoffrey Burgon

Nancy Telfer's Missa Brevis for 3-Part Female Voices. 'Although I was actuallly supposed to be working on a commissoned work at the time I felt such a strong urge to compose the Missa Brevis that I set the other music aside and quickly wrote the Missa Brevis. I could hear the colours and musical details vividly right from the first moment. There has been some beautiful music written to this text over the centuries but I could hear much more than beauty in the ageless text. This is apparent in the urgency of the opening sections of the Kyrie  the close matching of various emotions and words as theydance their way through the Gloria (yes I have a background in dance) the feeling of boundless space in the Sanctus (certainly affected by twentieth century exploration of space) and the illuminating 'halo effect' in the Agnus Dei.' - Nancy Telfer

Par PARRY BEN. Ben Parry presents a trio of Christmas classics from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Two lively, light-hearted numbers, I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, are followed by Band Aid's compelling Do They Know It's Christmas? Arranged for accompanied SATB mixed voices. The Choral Programme Series is now a well-established programming tool for many choirs as it offers a wealth of fresh material from many eras and in many styles.  Please view sample pages below. / Choral Music / Répertoire / Voix Mixtes et Piano

Broadway Presents! Teens' Musical Theatre Anthology: Male Edition is a delightful collection of musical theatre songs from a variety of shows that span decades of theatre history. Using the original vocal scores, the songs have been selected and adapted with the ranges and skills of teen singers in mind. Authoritative historical and contextual commentary, audition tips, and 16-bar cut suggestions for each song make this the most useful and relevant collection of its kind. CD includes accompaniment tracks. Titles: All That's Known (from Awakening) * Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins) * Corner of the Sky (Pippin) * Evenin' Star (110 in the Shade) * Giants in the Sky (Into the Woods) * Grow for Me (Little Shop of Horrors) * Heart (Damn Yankees) * I Can't Be Bothered Now (Crazy for You) * I Chose Right (Baby) * I Could Write a Book (Pal Joey) * I'd Rather Be Sailing (A New Brain) * I'm Calm (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) * I'm Not That Smart (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) * If I Only Had a Brain (The Wizard of Oz) * It's No Problem (Reprise) (High Fidelity) * Johanna (Johanna) * Ladies' Choice (Hairspray: the Movie) * Larther Than Life (My Favorite Year) * Left Behind (Spring Awakening) * My Unfortunate Erection (Chip's Lament) (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) * Now I've Seen You (Honk!) * On the Street Where You LIve (May Fair Lady) * Singin' in the Rain (Singin' in the Rain) Slide Some Oil to Me (The Wiz) * Some Girls (Once on This Island) * The Streets of Dublin (A Man of No Importance) * They Can't Take That Away From Me (Crazy for You) * They Were You (Solo Version) (The Fantasticks) * What Do I Need with Love (Thoroughly Modern Millie) * What Would I Do If I Could Feel? (The Wiz) * When I'm Not Near the / Instrumental Music, Miscellaneous, Songbooks, Voca / Recueil / Voix et Piano

Born into a family that had lived in Florence since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) entertained only a distant relationship with the music he heard at synagogue. It was only when he discovered Schelemo a rhapsody for cello and orchestra written in 1916 by Ernest Bloch that he began to understand what “Jewish music” could be. In the mid-1920s the young composer found a collection of prayers set to music among his maternal grandfather’s papers. Something clicked and from then on Jewish tradition would become a source of inspiration for Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1928 two years after publishing theDances of King David he wrote this Vocalise-Étude for medium voice and piano at the request of vocal teacher Amédée-Landély Hettich who wanted to include it in the Répertoire moderne de Vocalises-Études published by Leduc. The piece became so popular that several instrumental adaptations were soon created published under the title Chant hébraïque (for violin and piano: AL17 713; for cello and piano: AL 17196). Divided into three sections this wordless melody opens with a “sad and impassioned” chant that appears to grieve the tragic fate of the Jewish people. A folk dance follows in which a “lively and stubborn” movement has great panache. The third section returns to the initial poignant theme before briefly reiterating the dance motif allowing the piece to conclude on a hopeful note. The composer himself would adopt this proactive stance refusing to yield to resignation when fleeing Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws he decided to emigrate in 1939 to the United States a land of refuge to which he would remain faithful until his death some thirty years later.

With a CD of Recorded Piano Accompaniments Low Voice Book/CD-A collection of the best-loved spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh. Includes: Balm in Gilead - Deep River - Go Down Moses Go - Tell It on the Mountain - Little David Play on Your Harp - My Lord What a Mornin' - Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen - Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child - Steal Away - Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Wade in the Water - and more. The CD includes piano accompaniments of each piece.

The spiritual I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray arranged by Hall Johnson for 4-part chorus of mixed voices with Soprano and Tenor soloists.