SKU: SU.32040041

Baritone Voice & Piano Duration: 17' Composed: 2014 Published by: Amy Mills Music, LLC These three art songs can be performed independently or in sequence, at any time of the year. Stuart McAlpine’s profound text explores three men from the Christmas story, Joseph, the Inn-keeper, and Simeon. The creative and beautiful musical settings allow for powerfully dramatic interpretation and performance. To Joseph (who taught me how to look at art) The singer sings to Joseph, …you beheld a work of art, the making of a holy heart… and watching through Joseph’s eyes, when hung at last, its meaning was decreed. (4:40) The Inn-keeper’s Lament McAlpine brilliantly explores the possibility…what if the inn-keeper who turned away Mary & Joseph later became the inn-keeper who accepted the injured man brought in by the Good Samaritan? This powerfully dramatic piece depicts the Bethlehem inn-keeper’s bravado, Caeser’s decree was heaven sent, as guests raised glasses, I raised rent! But as the enormity of his mistake became apparent, in later years he bemoans, …if I’d known then what I know now… and finally declares at the end, I know now! (7:50) Simeon’s Last Prayer Simeon sings of being summoned to the temple where he holds his infant Savior. …then as grandfathers do, rejoiced as if he were my one-and-only too. As he leaves he whispers his final prayer, …dismiss your servant, to find You face-to-face. (4:30) Difficulty Level: Baritone/Mezzo-Soprano 6 (Professional) (Baritone Range: low A (optional low G) to high F# (optional high G,A) (Mezzo Range: low A (optional low G) to high G (optional high A) Piano 6 (Professional)(Same level as Debussy or Ravel) See also the version for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano See composer website for audio sample.

SKU: FP.FMJ02

ISBN 9790570503896.

A wonderfully balanced and yet contrasting set of songs for baritone voice and piano, inspired by Sir John Manduell’s long-standing love of French renaissance verse.

In the first, perhaps the most often quoted of Ronsard's poems, the poet invites young Mignonne to come and look at the purple rose and to realise that her beauty like the rose's will fade all too soon. Du Bellary's poem is redolent of late summer heat and haze as the thresher of the title calmly pursues his work. The Marot is a brief exercise in courteous mockery as the poet chides his ailing lady upon her gastronomic self-indulgence and warns her of the inevitable consequences upon her figure.

Finally published in 2013, Trois Chansons is one of the of the composer’s earliest surviving works, written while he was studying with the late Sir Lennox Berkely as a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music. The first performance was given by Beverley Humphreys at the Royal Academy of Music in 1956.