SKU: HL.1197761

UPC: 196288134930. 6.75x10.5x0.019 inches.

The Out from the Shadows Choral Series brings you “Summer Is Gone,” a new setting of British poet Christina Rosetti's 1862 poem “Bitter for Sweet.” The composer, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, displays superb control of text painting and dynamics, creating vocal lines as natural as speech. In perfect harmony with Rosetti's text, falling chromatic figures tossed back and forth among voice parts create an inescapable sense of decay and sorrow. Taylor's harmonic rhythm conveys the latent impression of time stretching and constricting. A truly masterful work, this piece makes for a great festival or competition performance. A fun challenge for an accomplished chamber or larger choir, and a memorable addition to any concert. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was an English-born composer and conductor who hailed from an English and African musical family. After discovering his inherent musical ability, Coleridge-Taylor's family arranged for him to study at the Royal College of Music under composition professor Charles Villiers Stanford. After completing his degree, Coleridge-Taylor was appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music and became the conductor of the Croydon Conservatoire Orchestra. With his compositions, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor sought to draw from traditional African music and integrate it into the classical tradition, in a similar fashion to Brahms and Dvorak with Hungarian and Bohemian music. He was a prolific composer and a well-respected conductor in England and America, even touring in America and being received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. His most celebrated work was his cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. On his death, close friend and poet Alfred Noyes said, “Too young to die: his great simplicity, his happy courage in an alien world, his gentleness, made all that knew him love him.”.

SKU: HL.49019902

ISBN 9790220134098. 8.25x12.0x0.059 inches. English.

As Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has written a new carol for Her Majesty the Queen each Christmas since his appointment to the role in 2004. A Winter Lamb, a setting of George Mackay Brown's poem Kings and Shepherds, was written for Christmas 2012 and is the ninth in his series of Royal Carols. A Winter Lamb was first performed in St. James's Palace by the choir of the Chapel Royal.

SKU: HL.14047936

UPC: 888680643348. 6.75x10.0x0.08 inches.

Judith Weir's Praise Him with Trumpets, a work for 2 trumpets, SATB choir and organ was commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces in collaboration with The Choral Foundation. The piece was composed for the Hampton Court Chapel Royal Choir in celebration of Hampton Court 500. A setting of text from Psalms 146 and 150, this work can also be performed without trumpets.