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

This exuberant rendition of a favorite French carol will live in your library for years to come. Dynamic choral parts, a thrilling piano accompaniment, and a colorful chamber orchestration equally showcase the talents of your choir, your accompanist, and the arranger. A magnificent pièce de résistance for the concert hall or sanctuary! Instrumental parts available as digital download. / Choeur

Karl Jenkins' vibrant Gloria is a large-scale festival piece commissioned by the Really Big Chorus for performance at London's Royal Albert Hall in July 2010. Cast in four movements it sets the traditional Latin text 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' and incorporates a setting of Psalm 150 in alternative Latin and Hebrew texts. Gloria follows Te Deum Stabat Mater and Requiem from the composer of Adiemus and The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. This edition features a fully realised keyboard reduction for rehearsal purposes.

Four American Choruses was commissioned by Simon Halsey and the City Of Birmingham Symphony Chorus who gave the premiere of I'm A Pilgrim the first of the four choruses on 31st January 2004 in Symphony Hall Birmingham. The complete set was premiered by the Netherlands Radio Choir conducted by Simon Halsey in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam on the 24th April 2004. The UK premiere of he entire set was again given by Simon Halsey and the City Of Birmingham Symphony Chorus on the 26th May 2005.

Oratorio in three acts-Handel composed Samson directly after completing the 'Messiah'. After its premiere in 1743 in the Covent Garden Theatre in London the work rapidly became one of the composer?s most successful oratorios alongside 'Esther' and 'Judas Maccabaeus'. This probably had as much to do with the popular Old Testament story of the libretto as with Handel?s masterly shaping of the arias and choruses. By including some movements in the appendix this edition makes it possible for the first time to perform the work in its original 1741 version. The edition is based on the complete edition volume of the 'Halle Handel Edition' (BA 4099) offering thecomplete music text of the oratorio for the first time. - Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition - Full score (BA4099)

Les Troyens - The Trojans: Opera in 5 Acts Berlioz composed Les Troyens towards the end of his life drawing on Virgil?s epic poem The Aeneid which he had admired since his childhood. In his Memoirs he recounts how his father a country doctor read Virgil to him and how the story of Dido?s tragic fate reduced him to tears which he tried hard to conceal. The score was finished in April 1858 but he was unable to persuade the Paris Opera to mount it (his earlier opera Benvenuto Cellini had been a failure there in 1838) and eventually he agreed to allow the last three acts to be performed under the title Les Troyens à Carthage. This took placeat the Théâtre-lyrique an enterprising but ill-equipped theatre in November 1863 and although it was much admired there were no more performances before Berlioz?s death in 1869. In the history of French music Les Troyens stand out as a grand opera that avoided the shallow glamour of Meyerbeer and Halévy but therefore paid the price of long neglect. In our own time the opera has finally come to be seen as one of the greatest operas of the 19th century. Urtext of the New Berlioz Edition Full score (BA5442) and vocal score (BA5442-90) available for sale Performance material (BA5442-72) available for hire

Jephtha is Handel’s last oratorio. Handel had to break off from composing several times because of his increasing blindness in 1751. The first performance at the Covent Garden Theatre in February 1752 was the last performance he conducted before he went completely blind. In Jephtha Handel succeeded in achieving the perfect fusion between a biblical plot and the spirit of classical tragedy. With great intensity and dramatic expression he highlighted in particular the fates of Jephtha and Iphis thereby portraying convincing and complex characters. The chorus How Dark O Lord are Thy Decrees at the end of parttwo is of crucial importance in the work and is regarded as the dramatic high point of the oratorio. The vocal score is based on volume I/30 of the Halle Handel Edition (BA 4014) which contains the complete critical version of the music of the oratorio for the first time. It contains a detailed foreword in German and English and a clear straightforward Piano reduction.

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.

The signature tune for the award-winning Swedish a cappella group Vocado HÃ¥ll Mig Kvar/Hold Me Fast is characterized by mixed messages: the lover wants to leave but can't quite bring himself to walk out the door. The flavour of the music reflects the dilemma with emotions ranging from muted acceptance in the verses to highly charged indecision in the passionate chorus. With classic a cappella rhythms and textures along with melodies that will stay with you for days this dual-language publication in the Voice Junction series is perfect for vocal groups and choirs singing in Swedish or English.HÃ¥ll mig kvar has been recordedby Vocado on the CD Northern Lights.

The 'Christmas Choirbook' is a collection of up-to-date, colorful arrangements of 22 Christmas songs from throughout the world. Among classics, dressed in new harmonic sounds, you will enjoy jazz and pop intonations, as well as gospel renditions of 'Go Tell It' and 'Joyful'. The skandinavien Christmas songs are particularly special: contemplative and musical, even droll as in the story about the Christmas troll in the finnish 'Tomtarnass Julnatt'.The 'Christmas Choirbook' offers many stylistic choices for the Christmas and Advent season choir music, so let the available CD (ED 9896-50) inspire you in the joyful singing of these pieces. Of course the recordings, meant only as a first and hopefully appealing impression, represent only a few of the many possible interpretations you will bring to the arrangements.Full verses were intentionally not recorded, although we did overlay simple instrumental accompaniments to the a cappella movements. In addition, the CD includes pure choire versions as well as some 'sing-a-longs', i.e. instrumental tracks for you to use as half-playback. / Choeur