SKU: CF.CM9713

ISBN 9781491160084. UPC: 680160918683. Key: G major. English. Robert Bode. Original.

The piece was commissioned by Kevin Scully, Director of Creative Arts, for the Port Washington School District, New York, with special thanks to the Ed Foundation and HEARTS for their unwavering support. Performance Notes This lighthearted piece is a great way to bring multiple choirs together in harmony. It may be sung by a single SATB choir, though it is intended to be performed by multiple choirs of varying age levels. Song of the Sound was written for an all-district feeder festival piece for combined elementary, middle level, and high school choirs. Here is a suggested outline for combining multiple choirs: Rehearsal Letters A to B: Elementary choir only (two-part, Soprano, Alto) Rehearsal Letter B: add Middle Level Soprano, Alto with Elementary choir Rehearsal Letter C: Middle Level choir only Rehearsal Letter D: High School choir only Rehearsal Letter E to the end: Everyone! Song of the Sound: Running on the beach, digging in the sand, Seaweed in my toes, bucket in my hand. When I'm at the shore, way above the rest, These are all the things that I love the best. Skipping like a stone on the water, diving deep in the silvery foam, Swimming far where the land cannot hold us, where the lighthouse calls us home. Flying free above the marshes, soaring high above the sea, Where the tern and cormorant and plover call to lands we cannot see.Come let us go to the water, let us go to the singing shore: Where the gentle breezes whisper and the mighty breakers roar. We will look to the shining ocean, to the East, where the new day dawned: We will sing a song of the edge of the world and the waiting sky beyond. -Poem by Robert Bode (Hope Springs Retreat Center, Ohio. August 2019) About the Composer: Jacob Narverud (b. 1986) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor. Dr. Narverud is an active guest Conductor/Clinician for Choral Festivals and All-State Choirs across the country and is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Tallgrass Chamber Choir, a professional ensemble comprised of musicians from across the Great Plains. As a sought-after composer, Narverud has been commissioned to write new works for a variety of choral ensembles and organizations. Many of his Editors' Choirs compositions are publisher Best Sellers and are performed worldwide by choirs of all levels. Website: www.jnarverud.com YouTube & Spotify: @jacobnarverud.
The piece was commissioned by Kevin Scully, Director of Creative Arts, for the Port Washington School District, New York, with special thanks to the Ed Foundation and HEARTS for their unwavering support.Performance NotesThis lighthearted piece is a great way to bring multiple choirs together in harmony. It may be sung by a single SATB choir, though it is intended to be performed by multiple choirs of varying age levels. Song of the Sound was written for an all-district feeder festival piece for combined elementary, middle level, and high school choirs. Here is a suggested outline for combining multiple choirs:Rehearsal Letters A to B: Elementary choir only (two-part, Soprano, Alto)Rehearsal Letter B: add Middle Level Soprano, Alto with Elementary choirRehearsal Letter C: Middle Level choir onlyRehearsal Letter D: High School choir onlyRehearsal Letter E to the end: Everyone!Song of the Sound:Running on the beach, digging in the sand,Seaweed in my toes, bucket in my hand.When I'm at the shore, way above the rest,These are all the things that I love the best. Skipping like a stone on the water, diving deep in the silvery foam,Swimming far where the land cannot hold us, where the lighthouse calls us home.Flying free above the marshes, soaring high above the sea,Where the tern and cormorant and plover call to lands we cannot see.Come let us go to the water, let us go to the singing shore:Where the gentle breezes whisper and the mighty breakers roar.We will look to the shining ocean, to the East, where the new day dawned:We will sing a song of the edge of the world and the waiting sky beyond.-Poem by Robert Bode (Hope Springs Retreat Center, Ohio. August 2019)About the Composer:Jacob Narverud (b. 1986) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor. Dr. Narverud is an active guest Conductor/Clinician for Choral Festivals and All-State Choirs across the country and is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Tallgrass Chamber Choir, a professional ensemble comprised of musicians from across the Great Plains. As a sought-after composer, Narverud has been commissioned to write new works for a variety of choral ensembles and organizations. Many of his Editors' Choirs compositions are publisher Best Sellers and are performed worldwide by choirs of all levels. Website: www.jnarverud.com  YouTube & Spotify: @jacobnarverud.

SKU: FG.55011-567-5

ISBN 9790550115675.

Alex Freeman's (b. 1972) Cathedral of Spring for chamber choir (2019) to poems of e.e. cummings and Robert Frost was commissioned and premiered by Somnium Ensemble. The composer tells: For the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Somnium Ensemble (Finland), I was commissioned to write a piece with spring as a central theme. While contemplating that and perusing appropriate poetry, I was inspired by memories of the night-time sky in early spring--the warm air, the teeming, buzzing energy of life all around, and an expansive dome of stars overhead. I then imagined that moment in time as a kind of sacred space; this is the point where the cathedral notion came to mind. The frenetic and joyous poetry of e.e. cummings, from his Epithalamion, gives an exclamatory introduction to the set, followed by his vision of spring from the point of view of giddy children in his iconic poem, [in Just-]. We then take a moment to contemplate the ephemerality of all this beauty (spring giveth and spring taketh away, i.e. an offertorium of sorts); Robert Frost's Blue-Butterfly Day places us in a moment where, by chance, we find ourselves enveloped by a delicately fluttering swarm of butterflies. Peaceful and still, yet in constant flux, we spend a some time taking that phenomenon in, while also experiencing a twinge of the realisation that this is truly fleeting. The final movement, returning to a later stanza from Epithalamion, cummings's sparkling paean to May is set as a kind of final anthem..

SKU: CA.925200

ISBN M-007-24914-4. Key: A major. Language: French. Text: Hugo, Victor.

The exuberant amorousness of a newly-wed couple pulsates in every note of Gabriel Faure's Dans les ruines d'une abbaye (In the ruins of an abbey). In this piece, the reverent silence of prayer no longer prevails, but within the venerable walls various shouts of joy and sparkling laughter are now heard. The old graves have long been overgrown by stinging nettles, and a new dawn of spring and of love fills the air. Napoleonic post-revolutionary France, which drove the author of the poem, Victor Hugo, into exile, is also building a new world on the ruins of olden days. Although the setting by the composer, 40 years younger than the poet, uses the romanticized backdrop of the old abbey, with its 6/8-meter it reflects the uninhibited happiness of the two lovers, who do not look back. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: AP.47615

UPC: 038081543086. English.

The optional lilting flute and rhythmic hand drum parts lend a festive air to this song that celebrates the end of winter. Robust choral singing throughout beckons a change of season, and a soaring descant at the end signals the triumphant return of spring. A fully developed piece for winter and spring programs.

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: BP.BP2339

UPC: 748769023396. 6.875 x 10.5 inches.

The ST CLEMENT tune, often associated with an evening hymn, is here paired with a fresh morning hymn of praise: Hail, holy light! The world rejoices as morning breaks and shadows fly; all nature blends her myriad voices to greet the dayspring from on high... Break forth, in glory far excelling, O light eternal, love divine! Howard Helvey's choral and piano writing shine exquisitely as always in this anthem.