SKU: HL.143361

UPC: 888680055547. 6.75x10.5 inches.

From the British singer/songwriter Sam Smith, this pop ballad found major chart success across the globe. With a message of heartache and loss, this piano-driven track features simple, emotional lyrics that will resonate with choirs and audiences everywhere.

SKU: AP.45600

UPC: 038081513393. English.

This sturdy original is composed in the style of a traditional spiritual. A symbolic text leads to crossing metaphoric River Jordan as the music recalls songs from early America. Opens with brief solos, builds to a hand clapping, almost a cappella bridge, and concludes only after full choral harmonies fade and voices unite on a single pitch.

About Alfred Choral Designs

The Alfred Choral Designs Series provides student and adult choirs with a variety of secular choral music that is useful, practical, educationally appropriate, and a pleasure to sing. To that end, the Choral Designs series features original works, folk song settings, spiritual arrangements, choral masterworks, and holiday selections suitable for use in concerts, festivals, and contests.

SKU: CF.CM9773

ISBN 9781491164440. UPC: 680160923342. Key: C# minor. English. Christina Rossetti.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,                                                       Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;                                                               Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,                                                             In the bleak midwinter, long ago.What can I give Him, poor as I am?                                                                                        If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;                                                                         If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;                                                                        Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.The text from this beloved poem of Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was originally published in an 1872 issue of Scribner’s Monthly, under the title A Christmas Carol. In the first of its five stanzas, the speaker describes in great detail a bitingly cold winter scene, void of both warmth and light. By the final stanza, the speaker's thoughts turn inward, asking what gift they may offer the infant Jesus, meek though they believe themselves to be.The poem was later set by English composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934) as a contribution to the English Hymnal in 1906 and remains the most popular setting today.London-born Rossetti came to be regarded not only as one of the greatest female poets of her time, but as an outspoken advocate on several societal issues, including slavery and cruelty towards animals.In this setting, word painting is of the utmost importance. Careful attention to word stress throughout the course of the piece will make the performance all the more captivating. Descriptive lines such as “frosty wind made moan” should be conveyed with swelling crescendos, like frigid gusts of frozen air.While this piece features an original tune, the beloved Holst melody is also featured briefly, beginning in m. 28. Take care to bring this out.There are plenty of other allusions to wintry scenes scattered throughout the choral parts as well as the accompaniment. I encourage you to put your sleuthing “hats” on and find them all. It will make the learning experience much more memorable and fun.