SKU: SU.96010062

Instrumentation: SATB Chorus, & Piano
Duration: 4'
Composed: 2012
Published by: Subito Music Publishing Minimum order quantity: 8 copies. Perusal copies are available by contacting (include the organization name with your request). To order quantities fewer than 8, please call customer service at (973) 857-3440.
About T.N.TAs a matter of practicality, when I was first asked to write a piece for the New York Theatrical Community Choir in 2005 by its music director, David Wolfson, I immediately decided to write a Kyrie. After all, I thought..., the text is only about four words and eliminated the need for a lyricist. Most appealing, however, was the fact that it would bring me one step closer to finishing the Mass that I was in the process of writing. If ever there was a case to be made for divine inspiration this appeared to be it. David Wolfson liked the idea and casually mentioned that there was another Kyrie and a religious hymn on the program. He also mentioned that the choir consisted predominantly of actors that sing.Like a bolt of lightning, divine intervention interceded whereupon I instantly realized that he needed a piece to wake up the audience, not another Kyrie. I took a breath and spontaneously began to talk through and improvise the concept of a piece that became the basis for Taxi.At that moment I was clueless as to what kind of piece I would write but it appeared to be a good idea at the time. David's reaction to my presentation was something like Okay,...I have no idea what you are talking about but let's try it. After a very successful public performance, he was delighted that I decided not to write a Kyrie and remarked that writ-ing a piece like Taxi for this group was like feeding raw meat to a pack of hungry lions. At that moment, the idea of doing a trilogy of similar pieces was born. For the last two seasons of the choir's existence I was asked to write a new piece and... as a matter of practicality, I happily agreed.-- Joe GianonoNote: Taxi, Noise, and Time may be performed separately.

SKU: PR.312419020

ISBN 9781491131862. UPC: 680160680474. 6.875 x 10.5 inches. English.

Commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Terra Nostra is a 70-minute oratorio on the relationship between our planet and humankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. Part I: Creation of the World explores various creation myths from different cultures, culminating in a joyous celebration of the beauty of our planet. Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines human achievements, particularly since the dawn of our Industrial Age, and how these achievements have impacted the planet. Part III: Searching for Balance questions how to create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. In addition to the complete oratorio, stand-alone movements for mixed chorus, and for solo voice with piano, are also available separately.
Terra Nostra focuses on the relationship between our planet and mankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. The oratorio is divided into three parts:Part I: Creation of the World celebrates the birth and beauty of our planet. The oratorio begins with creation myths from India, North America, and Egypt that are integrated into the opening lines of Genesis from the Old Testament. The music surges forth from these creation stories into “God’s World” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which describes the world in exuberant and vivid detail. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “On thine own child” praises Mother Earth for her role bringing forth all life, while Walt Whitman sings a love song to the planet in “Smile O voluptuous cool-breathed earth!” Part I ends with “A Blade of Grass” in which Whitman muses how our planet has been spinning in the heavens for a very long time.Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines the achievements of mankind, particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” sets an auspicious tone that mankind is on the verge of great discoveries. This is followed in short order by Charles Mackay’s “Railways 1846,” William Ernest Henley’s “A Song of Speed,” and John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s “High Flight,” each of which celebrates a new milestone in technological achievement. In “Binsey Poplars,” Gerard Manley Hopkins takes note of the effect that these advances are having on the planet, with trees being brought down and landscapes forever changed. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “A Dirge” concludes Part II with a warning that the planet is beginning to sound a grave alarm.Part III: Searching for Balance questions how we can create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. Three texts continue the earth’s plea that ended the previous section: Lord Byron’s “Darkness” speaks of a natural disaster (a volcano) that has blotted out the sun from humanity and the panic that ensues; contemporary poet Esther Iverem’s “Earth Screaming” gives voice to the modern issues of our changing climate; and William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” warns us that we are almost out of time to change our course. Contemporary/agrarian poet Wendell Berry’s “The Want of Peace” speaks to us at the climax of the oratorio, reminding us that we can find harmony with the planet if we choose to live more simply, and to recall that we ourselves came from the earth. Two Walt Whitman texts (“A Child said, What is the grass?” and “There was a child went forth every day”) echo Berry’s thoughts, reminding us that we are of the earth, as is everything that we see on our planet. The oratorio concludes with a reprise of Whitman’s “A Blade of Grass” from Part I, this time interspersed with an additional Whitman text that sublimely states, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love…”My hope in writing this oratorio is to invite audience members to consider how we interact with our planet, and what we can each personally do to keep the planet going for future generations. We are the only stewards Earth has; what can we each do to leave her in better shape than we found her?

SKU: HL.14023538

UPC: 884088826178. 6.75x10.5x0.026 inches.

Vincent Novello was a British composer and Organist who gave the Novello publishing company its first embryonic form. Here he arranges Rule, Britannia! for Voice SATB with Piano accompaniment to introduce some contrapuntal interest in the verse.When 18th century British composer Thomas Arne included his song Rule, Britannia! in a masque based on the life of Alfred the Great that was presented at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, he could not have imagined that more than two hundred seventy years later his ditty would be known throughout the British Isles and beyond. Rule, Britannia! is widely used in the Royal Navy and British Army and is featuredeach year at the Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall as a national sing-along.At the time of writing, the Dutch actually 'ruled the waves,' so this song was more an exhortation than a status report. The lyrics were also a statement of civil liberty. Since Cromwell's time, Britain had had a standing army which could be turned against the native population. A standing navy, however, existed solely to protect the nation from invaders, protecting a free populace.