SKU: PR.UE021717

ISBN 9783702474096. UPC: 803452071204.

George Arthur, director of Southampton University Chamber Choir and now award-winning composer, joins the Universal Edition catalog with four choral works for a cappella choir. In a setting more akin to show choir, I Saw Three Ships is a high-end arrangement of the traditional folk song, using a tricky rhythm structure. Well worth the extra time in preparation as a feature on your Christmas program.

SKU: FG.55011-355-5

Asked to contribute a carol to the already rich Finnish Christmas repertoire, music I've sung myself for many years, I was very aware of the things that mark the season for my adopted countrymen: peace, stillness, the cold landscape and home. When I came across Ester Ahokainen's gentle poem, so focused around these images, it seemed like providence. The resulting song is modest and warmly modal, departing only a little from Finnish tradition: a lingering dissonance here, a moment of quiet sentiment held slightly longer expected there. Like the words, the music opens outward in thanks at the end. Aattoilta was composed for the Helsinki Chamber Choir Christmas CD recording, and is dedicated to them.

SKU: XC.SATB2209A

9 x 6 inches.

A new Christmas showstopper! This arrangement is full of joy and excitement. This is wonderful introduction to eight-part singing for a choir, with its repetitive lines and memorable rhythms, but is no less enjoyable for advanced groups to sing. The song pulses with a celebratory rhythm, allowing the stunning original melody to dance around within the surrounding texture. This is also a great piece to give to a group that doesn't sing much French-- the text is quite repetitive.

SKU: WD.080689158087

UPC: 080689158087.

This arrangement featuring a female solo is a perfect praise and worship Christmas song that draws our hearts and minds to focus on the importance of Christ's birth, and the yearning of His people for when He will come again!

SKU: BT.MUSM570200641

English.

Jesus Reassures His Mother is a setting of medieval lyric poetry written anonymously in the 14th century. The poet recounts a vision of the young Mary rocking the infant Christ to sleep. The child requests his mother to sing a lullaby but, alas, knowing her child’s fate she is too sad to sing. Jesus tells her that all mothers worry about their children’s futures and insists that she should sing nevertheless. Mary recounts the visit of Gabriel and the events of Christ’s birth but reflects how sad it is to have delivered a child to such a fate. Jesus reassures his mother that he will be with his father in heaven where Mary will come to join Him at the end of time, there to livein eternal bliss. At this point Mary is persuaded by and echoes her child’s reassuring words, and she is joined in this by the choir (now representing us all). The vision fades away in the voice of the narrator whose loneliness and longing return. We learn that it is Christmas Day. This setting grows from the visionary mystical world inhabited by Julian of Norwich whose Revelations of Divine Love provided the inspiration for a work Anne Boyd composed in 1994. The medium has been expanded from the Song Company’s six solo voices used in the Revelations to the double motet choir of the Sydney Philharmonia who commissioned this work for their 75th anniversary. The parts of the infant Jesus, Mary, the Narrator and the angel Gabriel are taken by choir soloists: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The work is situated in the context of Boyd ’s personal musical aesthetic which she describes as the intersection of Christian Love with Buddhist silence.

SKU: WD.080689707230

UPC: 080689707230.

With a beautiful piano intro, Wrap This One Up, made popular by Christy Nockels, is a heart-rending song, reminding us of the weight that Jesus would carry the moment He was born. The spotless lamb, a Baby King, born without blemish would be the ultimate sacrifice for us.

SKU: WD.080689171086

UPC: 080689171086.

A truly perfect fit for a call to worship song, Phil Wickham's This Is Amazing Grace is set to an upbeat, worship choir anthem by Cliff Duren!

SKU: WD.080689163081

UPC: 080689163081.

At The Cross (Strong to Save) is perfect for an Easter service congregational song or invitation and will draw worshippers into a time of intimate reflection.