Par MIRANDA LIN-MANUEL. Relive the best hits from the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and GRAMMY Award-winning musical Hamilton in this 9-minute choral medley for SA/Men. With opportunities for soloists and small groups, this is a perfect showcase piece for your choir and a lively and fun addition to any concert programme. This medley includes the songs Alexander Hamilton, My Shot, The Schuyler Sisters, The Room Where It Happens, Helpless and Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down). This piece is part of the Faber Choral Singles series, offering a selection of beautifully crafted arrangements in a diversity of musical styles. From Broadway, pop and folk to spirituals, gospel and original works, the series is arranged for 3 part choirs (soprano, alto and a combined male-voice part) providing flexibility for any choir. Complete with straight-forward piano accompaniments supporting the vocal lines, the Faber Choral Singles series guarantees the perfect repertoire for every occasion – so get exploring and get singing! / Choral Music / Recueil / Voix Mixtes et Piano

Par PITTS ANTONY. The Naxos Book of Carols is collection of both the very old and the very new. Commissioned by the leading international classical music label, Naxos, these twenty-four arrangements of traditional and original carols tell the Christmas story - from the hope of Advent and the message of the Angels, to the humble birth of the baby in Bethlehem and the coming of the King of kings. This collaboration between Naxos and Faber Music has brought this volume, containing all 24 carols in four narrative sequences, in new arrangements for SATB choir with minimum divisi. There is a good mix of accompanied and a capella (even the latter have optional accompaniments) and there is practical guidance on how the carols may be used by congregations, as well as choirs with varied resources. The original CD, performed by the award-winning choir Tonus Peregrinus and directed by the composer Antony Pitts, is included within the book making it incredible value for money. / Choral Music / Recueil / Voix Mixtes

Par CURRY JESSICA. The Light We Cast presents three works for unaccompanied SATB choir by BAFTA-winning composer Jessica Curry. Including The Light We Cast from the soundtrack of the acclaimed video game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture; So Let Us Melt, from the mysterious virtual reality game; and Kiss the Bairns, from The Durham Hymns, a beautiful setting of a specially commissioned poem by Carol Ann Duffy, inspired by a soldier’s letter to his wife during World War One. / Choral Music / Répertoire / Voix Mixtes

There is no rose of such virtue is an anonymous mediaeval text, already well known through beautiful settings by Britten (in his Ceremony of Carols), John Joubert and others. The poem is 'macaronic' (it presents a verse in English, followed by a varying Latin refrain). This new version follows the illustrious examples above by remaining strophic and presenting broadly the same music in a succession of slightly different guises. The first verse is a straightforward four-part setting, the second gives the melody to the tenors and surrounds them with hushed, wordless writing for the other parts, and the third explores a freely canonic relationship between the tenor and soprano lines before carrying the previous verse-endings to a higher, more exalted pitch and mood. The fourth verse then expands its texture in a free climactic passage evoking the songs of praise sung by the angels. This subsides towards the final verse, where the texture of the music attenuates again to four parts, and canonic writing (based on the first four notes of the original melody) permeates all of them. This slightly extended statement leads to a hushed final cadence. Francis Pott (b. 1957) began musical life as a chorister at New College, Oxford. He held open music scholarships at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while pursuing piano studies privately in London with the distinguished British artist, Hamish Milne. Throughout the 1990s Francis was John Bennett Lecturer in Music at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and a lay clerk in the Choir of Winchester Cathedral. In 2001 he became Head of London College of Music, University of West London, later leading research across the University's Faculty of Arts and acceding in 2007 to its first Chair in Composition. Francis Pott has become recognised particularly for his sacred choral and organ music. This has been performed in concert and on radio in over three dozen countries worldwide, published by four major UK houses and released extensively on CD. Winner of four national composition awards, in 1997 he received first prize in the piano solo section of the S. S. Prokofiev Composing Competition, Moscow. In 2006 and 2011 he was a nominated finalist in the BASCA/BBC Annual Composer Awards. In summer 2012 he was winner of the international composing competition of the Cheltenham Festival, which sought new piano variations on the arioso song Bist du bei mir, well known in the arrangement by J. S. Bach. Francis lives with his wife and two children on the outskirts of Winchester. An inspiring selection of new works from a range of contemporary composers, the Novello New Choral Series offers pieces for all types of choirs, including sacred and secular works from simple, four-part settings to more expansive, yet accessible, repertoire in an exciting variety of styles. / Choeur Mixte (SATB)

Par BURTON KEN. British composer Ken Burton uses the writing of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906), the black American son of emancipated slaves, in his 3-minute work A Prayer. The text of the three verses is bitter-sweet, filled with hope and sadness, and the music combines with this to make a rhythmically simple reflective evening hymn. Burton draws on Spiritual, Gospel and Blues to write a piece for SATB with divisi that will be a popular piece both to sing and to hear. New commission from The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers and premiered in their inaugural concert as part of the online LIVE from London – Spring Festival 2021. Follows Descend to Earth, VOCES8’s own commission of Ken Burton in the LIVE from London – Christmas Festival 2020. UK-based Ken Burton is known for his work on UK television programmes, particularly in BBC TV’s Songs of Praise. Burton was choirmaster for the multi Oscar winning and Grammy winning Marvel film Black Panther./ Répertoire / Choeur Mixte SATB