SKU: PR.312419280

ISBN 9781491137925. UPC: 680160692613.

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: 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: WD.080689655173

UPC: 080689655173.

Dove Award winning songwriters Joel Lindsey and Jeff Bumgardner, with Dove Award winning arranger/ orchestrator Daniel Semsen, have, once again, brought to life an astoundingly appealing new musical for Christmas, Love Was Born a King. With a slew of critically acclaimed dramatic musicals for Christmas under their belt, this highly awarded creative team has done it again, this time with a twist! Their newest offering, Love Was Born a King, is actually 2 musicals in one! Fully developed as a dramatic musical in the vein of their previous successes (How to Have the Best Christmas Ever, An Unexpected Christmas, Welcome to Bethlehem, Under a Starry Sky), Love Was Born a King certainly doesn’t disappoint those in search of their next, new, dramatic musical. For others, who love the music heard in those previously released musicals but aren’t looking for a dramatic musical, Joel and Jeff have delivered an amazing choir with narrator musical option that fully utilizes all the songs found in the drama version… literally, 2 musicals in 1! The option with drama deals poignantly and sensitively with the plight of the homeless, drawing on the responsibility of God’s people to minister and care for those in need. And in the course of helping others, finding that we just might find ourselves being ministered to in the process! If instead you’re looking for a choir with narrator option, you’ll discover the same brilliantly written songs wrapped in a beautifully expressed narrative highlighting the traditional Christmas story focusing on the power and beauty of God’s Love come down to earth, manifested in the birth of the Christ Child.

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?