SKU: AP.47864

UPC: 038081548371. English.

This contemporary a cappella arrangement of the Imagine Dragons megahit is a powerhouse! Strong choral ostinatos lay down a rockin' accompaniment for your hard-hitting soloist in this rhythmic arrangement that is closely derived from the original. A fully notated vocal percussion part appears in the score, and suggestions for body percussion and handclaps offer even more kick.

About Alfred Pop Choral Series

The Alfred Pop Series features outstanding arrangements of songs from the popular music genre. These publications provide exciting, contemporary, and educationally-sound arrangements for singers of all ages, from elementary through high school, to college and adult choirs.

SKU: GI.G-9610

UPC: 785147961000. Latin. Text Source: Attr. Ambrose of Milan, 340–397. Text by Ambrose of Milan.

Composer's Notes When I met Kelsey Rose in Oxford in St. Stephen’s House chapel over the summer of 2017, we had both just attended a very moving candlelit concert by Westminster Williamson Voices, featuring my setting of “Tenebrae lumini.” I was delighted to be asked to write a piece for compline in Princeton University Chapel, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Anglican/Episcopal chaplaincy at Princeton University. “Aurora” is the result of that meeting. Composing by commission often throws up some interesting challenges. The piece had to fit both as an accompanying piece to the plainchant of compline, whilst simultaneously being a celebratory anthem. I was instantly drawn back to the poetry and hymns of St. Ambrose of Milan, particularly “Aurora iam spargit polum.” Fragments of chant (both real and imagined) are used to create the powerful imagery of the descending golden light of dawn. The piece reaches its climax with the plea for the despair of night to “vanish,” which it then does, leaving the sopranos alone on a high G.

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..