Uses: ChristmasScripture: Luke 2:8-15A profoundly engaging text asks important questions and helps us consider the perspective of the humble shepherds and in turn contemplate the mystery and majestyof the incarnation. Musically attractive it sensitively cradles the text with gentle hands and the new setting of the traditional spiritual “Rise Up Shepherd and Follow” is inspired. Duration: ca. 3:22.

Traditional-This spiritual for Epiphany or Christmas is from the Andre Thomas Choral Series. The composer Nathan Garris cleverly sets the work for mixed voices with soprano and tenor solos and piano a great choice for your holiday concert!

This soulful a cappella setting of the traditional Christmas spiritual will inspire your audience. A gem!Available separately: SATB SAB and SSAA. Performance Time: Approx. 2:45.

Noel! is an exciting collection for mixed voice choirs, selected and edited by David Hill. The contents range from the Renaissance to the present: the polyphony of Victoria and Byrd, via Bach, familiar settings of traditional and lesser known carols through the ages, and works by today's composers including Richard Rodney Bennett, Judith Bingham, John Tavener and Judith Weir. Mixed voice choirs of all levels will find here new arrangements of favourite carols as well as stimulating works for the Christmas season, from the easy to learn to the more challenging and unconventional. / Choeur SATB

Music for SATB chorus occupies an important place in Rhian Samuel's catalogue of works from the early carols written in the USA 'Jolly Wat the Shepherd' of 1970 and 'So Long Ago' (1st Prize Greenwich Festival 1979) to her most recent anthems for the Choir of New College Oxford. In her songs vocal chamber music and choral compositions she has explored an impressive range of poetry from anonymous 14th-century Welsh texts and traditional Japanese verse to Emily Dickinson Samuel Beckett and contemporary poets including Anne Stevenson. Samuel's three 'Jacobean Lyrics' of 1979 included a simple canonic account of George Herbert's 'I got me flowers'. Thisnew a cappella setting returns to the poet's sublime devotional verse reflecting the dialogue structure of 'Love Bade Me Welcome' through expressive contrasts of material and vocal ensemble.

Uses: Christmas Epiphany Concert Youth ChoirScripture: Matthew 2:1-11This Christmas gem is as much fun to sing as it is to hear! The traditional “call and response” format offers a number of options foradapting this anthem for your ensemble. Repetition makes for easy learning and the inclusion of the traditional spiritual “Rise Up Shepherd and Follow” is a masterstroke. A solid message inviting seekers to follow the light emboldensthe piece for use in worship as well as concert settings.

This traditional spiritual has been set by Phil Kern as a follow-up to his wonderful arrangement of “Rise Up Shepherd.” A strong piano accompaniment is paired with full vocals that range from forte harmonies andlegato unisons to quiet a cappella sections. Even hand claps are incorporated and the entire piece builds to a rousing final chord that your audience and singers will thoroughly enjoy and appreciate.

Written as a wedding present for two of the composer?s friends Come live with me sets Christopher Marlowe?s archetype of the late renaissance ?Pastoral Style? The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. As a nod to the great traditions of Elizabethan and Victorian partsong writing this setting is predominantly homophonic. Taking an A-B-A-coda structure the sweeping melody of the opening section (rising and falling like ?craggy mountains?) is later reprieved in a more luscious harmonization and continues to form the basis of the soprano and tenor duet during the coda. In the B section (?There will I make thee beds of roses?) the texture elaborates to more contrapuntal linesof dialogue between upper and lower voices with the passion reaching a understated zenith in the soprano 1 and tenor 1 rhapsodic rising duet under which the parts twine themselves around each other like ?leave of myrtle?.An imaginative setting closely allied with the text Come live with me is an exciting addition to the contemporary repertoire of choral music on the theme of love.

This title is taken from the compilation French Songs And Choruses For Mixed-Voice Choir (NOV165198) This song declares itself immediately as a variation on the Renaissance and Baroque tradition of the pastoral song with its use of the title 'To Chloris ' (Chloris and Phyllis were the generic names for pastoral shepherdesses and nymphs in Renaissance and Baroque literature) and the ornamentation in the accompaniment the repeated trills and turns also evoke the realm of the Baroque song. However the work is not a mere imitation; it is a modern song one that pays homage to rather than imitates the older models.

The Oxford Book of Flexible Carols is perfect resource for choirs of all types and sizes. Each piece is presented with flexible scoring options clearly explained throughout enabling performance by various combinations of singers. With carols for Advent Christmas New Year and Epiphany and a fabulous range accessible quality material this is a must-have collection for all choirs at Christmas.