This major concert work cosists o five movements.1st movement: La Laguna del ShimbeSituated high up in the Andes mountains in Northern Peru are the Huaringas a group of lagoons in isolated and mysterious surroundings. The water has healing powersand for centuries traditional healers have settled there in small villages. From far the sick come to the Huaringas to be treated in nightly rituals in which the hallucinating juice of the San Pedro cactus gives the prophet a look inside hispatient. The biggest lagoon is the ?Laguna del Shimbe? one of the countless wells of the immense Amazon stream.2nd movement: Los AguarunasFurther downstream in Northern Peru we come across the rain tribe of Los Aguarunas. It?s a proud beautiful andindependent race which has never succumbed to domination not even from the Incas. They live from everything the forest has to offer: fish fruit plants ... . They also grow some crops and live as semi-nomads. They take their fate into their ownhands and after having made contact with modern civilisation they have integrated new elements into their lives without betraying their own ways.3rd movement: MekaronMekaron is an Indian word meaning ?picture? ?soul? ?essence?. The Indians are theorigina inhabitants of the Amazon region. They either live in one place as a group or move around a large region. They all have their own political system their own language and an intense social life. At the same time they are master of music andmedicine. ?Everywhere the white man goes he leaves a wilderness behind him? wrote the North American Indian leader Seatl in 1885. As a result of these contacts with the whites the disruption of most Indian societies began. (In this century alone 80 tribes have vanished completely).4th movement: KêêtuajêThis is the name of the initiating ceremony of the Krahô tribe in the Brazilian state of Goias in which young boys and girls enter adult life. They are cleansed with water painted with redpaint and covered with feathers after which the ritual dance holds the entire tribe spell-bound.5th movement: Paulino FaiakanIn 1988 the Indian chiefs Faiakan and Raoni Kaiapo came to Europe to protest against the building of the Altamira dam inBrazil. As a result of the dam the Indians would be driven from their traditional land and enormous artificial would be created. The project was supported financially by amongst others the European Community. In February 1989 the Indian tribesaround Altamira held a protest march for the first time in their history together. Amongst other things they paid tribute tot Chico Mendez who murdered in 1988 was the leader of the rubber syndicate and a fierce opponent of the destruction of theBrazilian rain forest. Brazilian and world opinion was awakened. The building of the dam was -albeit temporarily - stopped.

This major concert work cosists o five movements.1st movement: La Laguna del ShimbeSituated high up in the Andes mountains in Northern Peru are the Huaringas a group of lagoons in isolated and mysterious surroundings. The water has healing powersand for centuries traditional healers have settled there in small villages. From far the sick come to the Huaringas to be treated in nightly rituals in which the hallucinating juice of the San Pedro cactus gives the prophet a look inside hispatient. The biggest lagoon is the ?Laguna del Shimbe? one of the countless wells of the immense Amazon stream.2nd movement: Los AguarunasFurther downstream in Northern Peru we come across the rain tribe of Los Aguarunas. It?s a proud beautiful andindependent race which has never succumbed to domination not even from the Incas. They live from everything the forest has to offer: fish fruit plants ... . They also grow some crops and live as semi-nomads. They take their fate into their ownhands and after having made contact with modern civilisation they have integrated new elements into their lives without betraying their own ways.3rd movement: MekaronMekaron is an Indian word meaning ?picture? ?soul? ?essence?. The Indians are theorigina inhabitants of the Amazon region. They either live in one place as a group or move around a large region. They all have their own political system their own language and an intense social life. At the same time they are master of music andmedicine. ?Everywhere the white man goes he leaves a wilderness behind him? wrote the North American Indian leader Seatl in 1885. As a result of these contacts with the whites the disruption of most Indian societies began. (In this century alone 80 tribes have vanished completely).4th movement: KêêtuajêThis is the name of the initiating ceremony of the Krahô tribe in the Brazilian state of Goias in which young boys and girls enter adult life. They are cleansed with water painted with redpaint and covered with feathers after which the ritual dance holds the entire tribe spell-bound.5th movement: Paulino FaiakanIn 1988 the Indian chiefs Faiakan and Raoni Kaiapo came to Europe to protest against the building of the Altamira dam inBrazil. As a result of the dam the Indians would be driven from their traditional land and enormous artificial would be created. The project was supported financially by amongst others the European Community. In February 1989 the Indian tribesaround Altamira held a protest march for the first time in their history together. Amongst other things they paid tribute tot Chico Mendez who murdered in 1988 was the leader of the rubber syndicate and a fierce opponent of the destruction of theBrazilian rain forest. Brazilian and world opinion was awakened. The building of the dam was -albeit temporarily - stopped.

from A Time for Alleluia-Uses: Advent Lent Palm SundayScripture: Isaiah 43:16-21; Luke 3:1-6; Isaiah 40:1The words of Isaiah the prophet jump from the pages of this anthem as a celebration of God's promise to send aRedeemer. This is a good choice for the season of Advent or Lent as it asks the believer to “prepare the way” for the arrival of Christ and the lectionary offers opportunities for these words of preparation to beincorporated into worship. The memorable harmonic progression on the words “Comfort Ye my People” is a rich and expressive moment for the choir and gentle quiescent codetta is a restrained touch that adds an elegantfinale to this scripture based anthem of encouragement. Multiple usages!

O Rex Gentium sets the Magnificat antiphon for December 22 - one of the great 'O' antiphons traditionally sung at Vespers in the week before Christmas. These texts are all invocations of the coming of Christ each one offering praise to him using titles taken from the prophet Isaiah.This piece was commissioned in 2011 to form part of a complete set of the seven O Antiphons for the Merton College Choirbook. It is conceived in grand and declamatory style owing a respectful debt to the great motets of Bruckner. Formed in A-B-A structure it uses block harmony in the outer sections for impact whilst the central part employssome more reflective and linear writing. A brief coda suggests an atmosphere of wonder and mystery at the prospect of Christ's birth.  

When the BBC commissioned this work for the Last Night of the Proms 2018 I was given quite a detailed brief. First the work should be for the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra) and the two choirs should be quite independent of each other. Secondly the words should acknowledge the centenary of the end of World War I but look optimistically to the future. For the centenary I chose In the Underworld by World War I poet Isaac Rosenberg written in 1914. Originally about unrequited love it can read if you do not know its context as a prophetic look at the next four years with the sense that the women left at home cannot begin tocomprehend the horrors their men face in the trenches. The BBC Singers represent Rosenberg and their music is based on a beautiful Ashkenazi-Jewish prayer mode â?? also known as the â??Ukrainian Gypsyâ?? mode. While I was reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (written in 1923) I came across these lines which seem to answer and assuage the fears expressed in Rosenbergâ??s poem. The BBC Symphony Chorus take on the role of Gibran singing in a beautiful melismatic Maronite Syriac chant into which faith Gibran was born in Lebanon. Later in his life he became very interested in Islam particularly Sufism; therefore the whole piece is in the form of a Sufi Zikr with Sufi devotional rhythms in the percussion starting quiet and low but slowly becoming higher faster and louder. The two choirs start separately but merge into a â??conversation â?? sometimes overlapping and ending on a positive note: Rosenbergâ??s Creature of light and happiness over Gibranâ??s We shall build a tower in the sky. Quite by accident all three Abrahamic faiths are represented in this piece â?? but as Kahlil Gibran famously said: â??You are my brother and I love you. I love you when you prostrate yourself in your mosque and kneel in your church and pray in your synagogue. You and I are sons of one faith â?? the Spirit.'

Uses: Advent Call to Worship Introit Scripture: Isaiah 40:3-5 Mark 1:3 The words of the prophet become song in this carefully written sacred choral designed for choirs of any size. Perfect as a processional the voices can be divided into any combination maximizing the performance options. There are optional parts for children's voices and the ring and sing handbell part makes this a multi-generational and multi-ministry work. The four Advent candles are clearly presented with a verse for each to the popular carol tune O Come Little Children. Beautiful and useful!

Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for their 2012 convention here is the first major work from the pen of Rosephanye Powell. With text from the Book of Jeremiah the four movements follow the prophet's feelings of abandonment and redemption by God. Powell combines this ancient text with music that draws simultaneously from the African American musical heritage as well as the classical music traditions.

Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for their 2012 convention here is the first major work from the pen of Rosephanye Powell. With text from the Book of Jeremiah the four movements follow the prophet's feelings of abandonment and redemption by God. Powell combines this ancient text with music that draws simultaneously from the African American musical heritage as well as the classical music traditions.

This work was commissioned by DOM in association with Canty who gave the first performance in York Minster on 23rd October 2008.This brief motet for four voices and renaissance bray harp was written in the South of France inFebruary 2007. It is a setting of two Hadiths or sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed. The words convey something of the great mystery of the Absolute and the Beautiful One who is immanent and yet hidden. The music shouldbe performed with great purity in a resonant acoustic. If a renaissance bray harp is not available the harp part may be played on a contemporary instrument. I was a Hidden Treasure; And I longed to be known; So Icreated the world.God is a Beautiful Being And He loves Beauty.

Written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The composer writes The Open Secret is a hadith or traditional saying of the Prophet Mohammad attributed to Ali Ibn Abi Talib. The profundity of this hadith moved me to makethis setting for SATB choir. The music is intended to be used in a Christian context to promote an understanding of the depth and beauty of Islam.

This edition of Schumann's Woodland Scenes has been prepared and annotated for the ABRSM by Howard Ferguson.

The hymns in this collection have been favorites of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints---from the Mormon pioneers to modern-day church members worldwide. / Piano

Par VAUGHAN WILLIAMS RALPH. Boldly reimagined and completed by Martin Yates, The Future, a substantial non finito draft of a major choral setting of words by Matthew Arnold, dates from 1908, immediately after Toward the Unknown Region, and in the crucial year of Vaughan Williams’s three-month tutelage with Ravel in Paris. Urgent ecological concerns – strikingly relevant today no less than in the Victorian period of unprecedented industrial expansion – propel the broad sweep of Arnold’s prescient account of mankind’s past and its uncertain hereafter. The prophetic tone draws on similar images of river, estuary and ocean that inspired the finale of A London Symphony. The Future is around 35 minutes’ duration, for solo soprano, chorus and orchestra, and it will without question be seen as an essential link in the evolution of VW’s embracing universal vision of humanity, expressed uniquely for all time in A Sea Symphony. / Date parution : 2023-03-11/ Répertoire / Soprano, SATB et Orchestre