SKU: OU.9780193954120
ISBN 9780193954120. 12 x 8 inches.
for SSAATTBB and organ (ad lib.) Born 200 years ago this year and orphaned at the age of 3, Sterndale Bennett was brought up by his grandfather in Cambridge, where he sang in the choir of King's College before entering the Royal Academy of Music to study the piano at the age of 10. He was later to become Professor of Music at Cambridge and Principal of the RAM. This fine eight-part setting of verses from Psalm 71, written towards the end of his life, explores imitative and antiphonal textures.
SKU: PE.EP68578
ISBN 9790300759630. English.
Of Time and Passing (2016) is a cycle of three choral songs written specifically for the London-based ensemble, VOCES8, taking into consideration their versatilityand ability to beautifully intone a range of vocal colors with precision and grace.
The first song, I. Life, sets my translation of the poem A Vida by Brazilian poet Olavo Bilac (1865-1918), a poet I discovered while studying Brazilian Portuguese at the University of Michigan. I was drawn both to the simplicity of the text and to the possibilities of teasing out dual contrasting moods. In the beginning and end, this song explores a texture that is very much alive: wave-like contours, throbbing sounds, and plenty of flowing movement. Rising eighth-note motives in particular emphasize the fleetingness of life. But in the middle of the song, the listener is given a slowed-down atmosphere to savor life's beauty.
II. To Everything a Season capitalizes on VOCES8's ability to effectively interpret popular genres a cappella. This ancient text is taken from Ecclesiastes (dated around 300 B.C.) but I set it to a modern, rhythmically-regular and percussive pop-style idiom. Since popular music in whatever era is designedto appeal to a specific ?present time?, it is by its very nature ephemeral, and therefore seemed an apt metaphor to evoke the transitory nature of seasons.
III. Into Your Hands, confines the writing into no more than four parts, often with octave unisons.This creates a more direct and word-focused setting in which the Psalmist?s urgent words are placed at the forefront. Largely homophonic, this song is at times chorale-like, at times madrigal-like,finally relinquishing it?s tension into peaceful rest, proclaiming ?You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God??
- Daniel Knaggs
SKU: HL.49043979
ISBN 9790001189408. 8.25x11.75x0.09 inches. Latvian.
Text in Latvian.
SKU: OU.9780193954052
ISBN 9780193954052. 12 x 8 inches.
For SSAATTBB and organ This fine double choir setting, published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, uses the two choirs to great effect, with the Gloria starting with striding imitation between the soprano and tenor (later alto and bass) over a pedal point in the organ.
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