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

Francis Pott’s My song is love unknown sets all of Samuel Crossman’s famous verses but one (commonly omitted when the poem is sung metrically as a hymn). The music begins with offbeat repeated chords prompted—not inappropriately—by the opening to Richard Strauss’s tone poem  Death and transfiguration. In its early stages only trebles and altos are heard. The sequential flow of Crossman’s poem is soon disrupted with particular dramatic ends in mind. After a seemingly anxious harmonic distortion of the opening chords the word ‘crucify’ arises initially as a mere mutter from the lowervoices so timed as to afford assonance with other words in the upper parts and thus remain barely discernible as if only imagined. In due course however cries of ‘Hosanna’ find themselves on a collision course with a rising tide of ‘Crucify’ during which the ‘Hosanna’ faction gradually loses heart and sheep-like defects until a single treble voice—plaintively daring to repeat the ‘offending’ word—is swept aside by a murderous outcry. In due course ‘Crucify’ recurs as a further angry climax before the opening music returns this time expanding into an extended polyphonic final section for double choir and SATB soloists. The principal climax of the work subsides into a form of epilogue crowned sorrowfully by a treble soloist to whom the music in toto has by now presented many challenges. The anthem ends in the key and mood of its opening. The character of its demanding organ part reflects the possibility that it may one day be orchestrated.   My song is love unknown was composed in memory of Michael Renton a craftsman and largely self-taught ‘Renaissance’ man who was not only a member of the Winchester cathedral congregation but also the cathedral’s stonemason. He was beloved of many in the Cathedral community; a true and

My Luve Is Like A Red Red Rose is a poem by Robert Burns from 1794 based on traditional Scots sources. It has been set here for TTBB male voice chorus with a Piano reduction provided for rehearsalpurposes.Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946) was a British composer conductor and educator. He channelled his energetic and creative personality into many musical projects championing the works of Jean Sibelius founding the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and composing many splendid classical pieces. Viewed by his contemporaries as out-of-date his music is now being appreciated as one of the last great contributions from theEnglish Romantic movement.

?I asked my friend the poet Einar Askestad if he could write a poem for me about love between father and son brothers and God. I felt that these forms of love are seldom sung about. The poem moved me greatly and I have tried to put music to these words which is simple yet full of beauty. In the four movements of this suite-like piece various aspects of these relationships are conveyed?. - Mårten JanssonBiography:My music is my own and I have never tried to be original. That has always been my motto and I have only tried to use music to express all the feelings life consists of. This has led people todescribe my music as both ?so sad that it sounds like birds who have lost their wings? and ?the happiest classical music we ever heard?. I have also always preferred beautiful music to atonal music and that is surely the reason why the most part of my music is more on the sad side but what a dream it would be to be able to create beautiful music that?s bubbling over with joy! My compositions consist of almost only sacral music. This is to express my own faith but also my appreciation and respect for the timeless texts that have been used for centuries after centuries.In 1994 I was lucky enough to start conducting the female choir Carmen and I conducted them until we decided to disunite 2010. This is of course the biggest reason why most of my compositions are for female choirs the knowledge that what I write during the night will be tested the next evening is a driving force that not so many are lucky enough to have.I work as a voice music theory and conducting teacher and conductor in Uppsala were I was born -65 and still live. My education is in short: two years of musicology at Uppsala University and a MFA in Music Education and Dalcroize Rhythmics at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.- Choral works a cappella.- Sample pages for download: www.baerenreiter.com.

Par GRIFFIN MICHAEL. Bumblebee! Rounds and Warm-ups for Choirs is more than just a wonderful collection of 130 choir exercises including 50 rounds. Michael Griffin, who has taught and consulted throughout the world, shares timeless wisdom to help you get your choir into shape. 'Will prove useful for almost everyone” -Rhinegold Music Teacher Magazine. 'This is a great resource to add to one's library of rehearsal tricks.' - Anacrusis, ACCC, Canada 'Bumblebee contains excellent new ideas and extensions on some of those well-known warm-ups that we all love to use. Backed by clear explanations of the purpose of each, it is a must have, particularly for less experienced choral directors.” - S Turner, PLC, Sydney. 'Vocal physiology, singing pedagogy, and effective vocal examples to practise are excellently combined in Bumble Bee, making it a kind of 'one stop shop' for singing teachers and choir conductors. The vocal work is fun with music examples ranging in difficulty, catering for a variety of vocal contexts. The rounds are invaluable in themselves, offering participants many opportunities to make beautiful music. I even use some of these vocal exercises with my tertiary drama students, as they encourage vocal health and illustrate how the vocal mechanism works. I would highly recommend this resource to anyone who cares about voices and loves to sing well!” - S. Chapman, QLD 'This is really good stuff for all kinds of vocal groups, choirs, conductors. Bravo!!' - Harrie Spronken, Netherlands. 'This is the thinking person's guide to training a choir! Love it.' - Margaret May, Australia. 'It's great to have some fresh warm-ups to add to the repertory. Being short and repetitive by their nature, we need lots of different ones and most of these are new to my choir. The tips for actions and techniques etc. are really useful, and the advice at the back of the book has made me review some of my strategies.' - Philip Duffy, UK./ Méthode / Choeur

Schubert Singt II. Schubert Singt II is part of my ongoing work with the voice and Schubert's songs. I have worked with juxtaposing my own untrained voice with trained classical voices in pieces like Schubert Lounge (ensemble version premiered in Stuttgart in 2019).

Frauenchor. Par HAYDN FRANZ JOSEF. Haydn presumably wrote his 'Missa brevis” in 1775 for the Brothers Hospitallers of Eisenstadt Abbey. The work takes its nickname, the 'Little Organ Mass', from the organ solo in the 'Benedictus”. This arrangement for female choir (SMezAA) is based on the complete edition of the 'Works of Joseph Haydn”. The original soprano and alto parts have, for the most part, been taken over, as has the soprano solo in the 'Benedictus”. The tenor and bass parts are distributed among the mezzo-sopranos and altos, with a few well thought-out alterations to preserve the harmonic structure. Heribert Breuer has retained the original substance with great skill while giving the work a wholly new and attractive sound. Heribert Breuer was professor of choral conducting and music theory at Berlin University of the Arts until 2010. He is the founder and conductor of the Berlin Bach Academy. - Arrangement for SMezAA based on the Henle Complete Edition of the Works of 'Joseph Haydn” - Idiomatic piano reduction (BA 5694-90)/ Répertoire / Piano

Content : All Night All Day - Amazing Grace - Deep River - Down By The Riverside - Get On Board (Gospeltrain) - Go Down, Moses - Go Tell It On The Mountain - Good News - Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho - Joyful, Joyful - Kum Ba Ya My Lord - My Lord What A Morning - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen - O Happy Day - Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child - Swing Low - Somebody's Knocking At Your Door - The Little Light Of Mine - Were you there - When The Saints Go Marching In

The vocal score of Choral Symphony by Australian composer Carl Vine. Scored for SATB choir organ and orchestra Carl Vine’s Choral Symphonysets four ancient hymns in exotic languages that have not been spoken for thousands of years: ‘Enuma Elish’ an Akkadian creation myth describing the creation of the world from primeval chaos and three Homeric Hymns  to the Earth the Moon and the Sun (in Greek 'Epic Dialect'). The vocal writing in this 26-minute symphony (Vine’s sixth) is homophonic throughout reflecting the composer’s wish for the workto ‘revel in the power of the human community’. 

The Coming Of Christ was a Mystery Play written by John Masefield in 1927 at the request of the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral based on the Christmas story. Holst's incidental music was composed at the sametime and published separately in 1928. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an English composer and teacher. Having studied under Stanford and Parry he became a close friend of Vaughan Williams they would oftencritique each other’s work and influenced composers such as Tippet and Britten. He is best remembered for his Planets suite.