Check out the winning entry in our Noteflight A Cappella arranging competition Brandy Kay Riha whose arrangement of the Shawn Mendes song ?Stitches? demonstrated amazing a cappella craft and energy! Thanks to our judges Deke Sharon and Roger Emerson and congratulations to Brandy. You'll love sharing it with your students!

Morton Gould's Hosanna Amen from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Morton Gould's Ballads from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'the earlybird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Morton Gould's The Early Bird from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Morton Gould's Walkin'On Air from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

'Yankee Doodle' with variations is the most concise way to describe the piece commissioned by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra to commemorate Conneticut's participation in The United States Bicentennial. 'Yankee Doodle' a tune dating back to the Middle Ages in Holland and England (and used by the British as early as 1755 to poke fun at untrained American troops in the French and Indian war) is interwoven with other folk and national melodies to stitch a patchwork or a musical collage. It is a personal view of American history.'To explain my approach to They All Sang Yankee Doodle I must explain my own background because the piece is made up ofmusical memories imprinted from early childhood.My earliest musical memories are a juxtaposition of sounds - hymns and Bach chorales from the church next door where my mother was choir director; early twenties jazz from my oldest brother's dance band; classical piano from my middle brother and my mother's piano studio; and cowboy songs and turn-of-the-century ballads that I have always identified with my father. Concord California where I was born was once part of a land grant from the Mexican government and the Spanish-Mexican influence remained strong even as the town expanded from a sleepy settlement into an American microcosmos with a wide variety of ethnic groups. Over fifty years ago most of us who sang 'Yankee Doodle' in Concord could not trace our ancestry to the founding fathers. Those of us with Anglo-Saxon names were at the end of the Westward push our forefathers having left behind the Eastern cities a few generations before settling for a time mid-continent then restlessly pushing further West. Little is known of my paternal grandfather for instance except that he had come to California from Indiana walking across Nevada desert to become one of the first settlers in Mordoc Indian territory.Of course the native American the Indian was there to greet each new migration and it is his