Antiphons and Music For Holy Week and Easter. Par HUGHES ANDREW. Hughes Andrew (Ed)/ Recueil / Chorale

Par TEMPERLEY N.. Both a dedicated carol singer and an authority on the history of English music, Nicholas Temperley here offers a unique book of 37 carols dating from the fifteenth century to the present. For over fifty years he has sung, edited and composed carols each Christmas, and in Christmas is Coming the fruit of his enthusiasm is combined with his wealth of knowledge to produce an outstanding and original new collection. As John Rutter observes in his Foreword, the book does not pointlessly duplicate what can be found in many other carol books, but has a personality and purpose of its own. Twenty-two fresh and practical arrangements include carols from Austria, France, Germany, Mexico, Poland and the USA, alongside music both rare and familiar from the rich heritage of the English carol tradition. As well as eight of his personal favourites, from J. S. Bach to Charles Ives, the author includes seven new compositions of his own, settings of medieval and traditional texts that reveal his skill as a choral composer whose command of style ranges from the humorous to the profound. In addition to sample programmes and translations, there are invaluable notes on the performance and history of individual items, plus an historical summary of the genre as a whole: everything in fact to make Christmas is Coming an indispensable companion for singers who wish to enrich the seasonal repertoire for concerts, churches and traditional Yuletide carolling./ Recueil / Chorale

Par PURCELL HENRY. A shortened version of Purcell's Fairy Queen for concert performance devised by Peter Pears, with the words taken from an anonymous adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream./ Répertoire / Chorale

Par BRALEY BERNARD. Edited by Bernard Braley Bernard Braley's fascinating anthology begins with the Biblical premise, from Micah, that we are required to offer our work itself as living worship and living prayer. To this is added Teilhard de Chardin's modern insight that in the work of spirit, conducted through an individual's profession or vocation, lies 'the very bonework of society'. A wealth of quotations, extracts, prayers, hymns and interviews challenges both Christian and secular interpretations of work, at a time when changes wrought by new technology are daily transforming our fundamental concepts of human labour. ISBN 0 85249 831 4/ Livre / Livre

Par DARKE HAROLD. Love came down at Christmas (SATB) Cradle Hymn (Solo or unison and piano) A Christmas Carmen (SATB) The three carols in this new collection date from the early years of the twentieth century, but they have a perennial freshness that is typical of Darke's other enduring choral works, such as the much-loved carol In the bleak midwinter. They may be sung equally effectively as individual items, or together as a short anthology of seasonal music. A solo voice or unison singing would be equally effective in Cradle Hymn, which offers a refreshingly unfamiliar tune to time-honoured words. A Christmas Carmen makes for a rousing conclusion with a seasonalmessage of goodwill./ Feuillet / Chorale

Par PURCELL HENRY. Matching skilfully contrived music with topical and often scabrous texts, Purcell’s Catches offer vivid glimpses of 17th-century life which also appeal to a more modern sense of humour. Reissued to celebrate the tercentenary of the composer’s death, this complete collection is edited by Michael Nyman, who provides an extensive preface that tells the history of the genre. For 3-part and 4-part mixed voices./ Répertoire / Chorale

Par HAYDN FRANZ JOSEF. This is probably the best of Haydn's early short masses, and certainly the most well-known. The Robbins Landon edition, based on the original performance materials, is now the standard, authoritative edition of this repertoire work. / Niveau : Assez Facile / Musique religieuse / Répertoire / Chorale

Par SCHUBERT FRANZ. Prepared from the composer's autograph manuscript, Brian Newbould's authoritative new performing edition of Schubert's celebratory Magnificat brings this little-known masterpiece to light. A short, perfectly crafted setting, written by the young composer in 1815, it provides the ideal concert opener or partner to other more extended concert works. A full score is also available (0-571-52009-X)/ Répertoire / Chorale

Par SHEPPARD JOHN. Edited by David Chadd The music of John Sheppard, who was about ten years younger than Tallis, dates from the uncertain times of the Reformation and the reigns of Edward VI and Mary. Perhaps his most impressive work is to be found in his cantus firmus responds, which reflect the considerable musical importance that some choral foundations attached to Matins and Vespers on special feast-days in the last decades of the Sarum rite./ Recueil / Chorale

Par BRALEY BERNARD. Bernard Braley This volume covers the lives of George Herbert, the seventeenth century religious poet and parson; Edward Plumptre, the nineteenth century educationalist and theologian who became Dean of Wells Cathedral; Robert Bridges, medical man, precentor in a village church, Poet Laureate and eccentric; and Fred Pratt Green, who took up hymnwriting seriously at an age when many retire, and whose twentieth century hymns are now sung across the world. Hymnwriters 3 ''has. . . . a classical and appropriate cover, featuring an organ and bench with portraits of hymnologists. Also the near-magazine format, featuring side-bars, boxed sections, photos and drawings and anumber of different typefaces, make it a really top-class production. This also has impressive indices: Index of Persons, Index of Place Names, General Index and, lastly, Index of Tunes. Anybody interested in the hymnology/poetry of all the people covered in this finely produced book should add it to their library. '' (Librarians' Christian Fellowship Newsletter) ISBN 0 85249 790 3/ Livre / Livre