SKU: CA.744700

ISBN 9790007300050. English. Text: Woodward, George Ratcliffe.

Manuel Grunden has created an impressive modern interpretation of the English Christmas carol Ding, dong merrily on high, which itself is based on a 16th century French dance tune. Piquant and well-conceived harmonies turn the classic carol into a scintillating jazz/pop work that is sure to captivate with its colorful vocal writing and creative accompaniment patterns.Manuel Grunden’s reimagining of this traditional festive song with a contemporary sound has created a piece suitable for any Christmas concert program.

SKU: CA.924500

ISBN 9790007244408. Key: E flat major. Language: German. Text: Morike, Eduard.

Hugo Wolf composed over 250 songs to texts by the greatest poets of his day. One of the best-known of these is Verborgenheit. In Denis Rouger's arrangement it reveals its own momentum which does not conflict with the original masterpiece, but presents new facets alongside it, inviting us to discover something new in the old. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.926400

ISBN 9790007261870. French. Text: Victor Hugo.

In his poem Soiree en mer, Victor Hugo describes how the sea can be perceived very differently by two lovers at the same time in the same place. While the man perceives the deepening shadows on the dancing waves, the woman marvels at the stars shining ever brighter in the firmament. In nature, as in the words of the poem, the painful ambiguity that represents life at its core can be experienced. Like no other poet, Hugo captures this almost unbearable simultaneity of living and dying, of love and suffering. Saint-Saens translates this into music - probably the most ephemeral and contemporary of all art forms. His balanced musical form leaves plenty of room for the poetry and his subtle variations in timbre, which also inspired Denis Rouger to his choral arrangement, create a seething motion under the surface of the sea.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ...wo die Ztronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).

SKU: GI.G-9610

UPC: 785147961000. Latin. Text Source: Attr. Ambrose of Milan, 340–397. Text by Ambrose of Milan.

Composer's Notes When I met Kelsey Rose in Oxford in St. Stephen’s House chapel over the summer of 2017, we had both just attended a very moving candlelit concert by Westminster Williamson Voices, featuring my setting of “Tenebrae lumini.” I was delighted to be asked to write a piece for compline in Princeton University Chapel, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Anglican/Episcopal chaplaincy at Princeton University. “Aurora” is the result of that meeting. Composing by commission often throws up some interesting challenges. The piece had to fit both as an accompanying piece to the plainchant of compline, whilst simultaneously being a celebratory anthem. I was instantly drawn back to the poetry and hymns of St. Ambrose of Milan, particularly “Aurora iam spargit polum.” Fragments of chant (both real and imagined) are used to create the powerful imagery of the descending golden light of dawn. The piece reaches its climax with the plea for the despair of night to “vanish,” which it then does, leaving the sopranos alone on a high G.

SKU: UT.TME-1R

ISBN 9790215322646. 7.7 x 10.6 inches.

Performance Material on Hire

[Solo: SAATB - Str - Bc]

Thanks to its patron the Duke Francesco II, Modena became a capital city worldwide for the oratorio genre: renowned maestro di cappella in Ferrara, also Bassani wished to offer to the Duke his own work, setting aside for him the summit of his melodic and dramaturgical inventiveness.

SKU: CA.966500

ISBN 9790007167707. Text language: Latin/English.

Interestingly, Ayres combines the Latin text of the hymn with his translation here: in the style of a free motet-like cantus firmus, he interprets the Latin text impressively in music, making use of glissandi, wide leaps and unison twelve-tone linear construction for the dramatic second verse with its deceptive vision of night. He places the motet sections after the translated text, but quite simply with the Gregorian cantus firmus and in the style of medieval organum, however with interesting, diatonically written dissonant sounds. This rewarding piece is challenging, but well worth singing in a concert or church service.

SKU: CA.411115

ISBN 9790007170868. Key: C major. Text language: Church Slavonic.

Score available separately - see item CA.411100.

SKU: CA.127600

ISBN 9790007002381. Key: B flat major. Language: German.