SKU: HL.374944

UPC: 196288017387. 6.75x10.5x0.029 inches. Ezekiel 11:19, I Peter 1:3, II Corinthians 5:17, Isaiah 40:31.

For Eastertide, this anthem of hope and challenge provides a noble gesture that will send hearts and voices soaring with praise. A confident hymnlike theme announces a new day for renewal, restoration and revival! Framed as a call to worship, the verses conclude with a distinctive mixed-meter pattern that overflows with joyful confidence. After a satisfying development section, the main theme returns transformed with a sweeping descant that touches the heights in a celebration of life. Glorious! Score and Parts (tpt 1-2, tbn 1-2, timp) available as a digital download. Part for Handbells (3 oct., 26 bells) also available as a digital download.

SKU: HL.365819

UPC: 840126962109. 6.75x10.5x0.029 inches. Daniel 12:3, Matthew 2:2, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 85:8.

This rustic approach to the early-American tunes WARRENTON and NETTLETON will raise the joy level in your sanctuary! The original text has a sprinkling of Wesleyan lyric thrown in for good measure and comes wrapped up in a surprising choral/bluegrass jubilee. A contrasting middle section delivers a lyrical pause in the dance, but the joy soon returns as the anthem races to a decisive ending. Score and Parts (fdl, bjo, mndln, ac gtr, up b, dm) available as a digital download.

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: LP.OR-2645

UPC: 765762078307.

Choirs of all sizes enjoy this high energy medley especially suitable as a service opener. Your congregation will love singing along on this Mike Speck offering. Songs included in the medley: We Have Come into This House; Praise the Lord; Come on Let's Praise Him .