Who doesn't remember musical moments in their past when singing became transcendent and the moment became a memory never to be forgotten? Henry Van Dyke's poem recalls that time and Matthew Emery the young Canadian composer attracting everyone's attention set it to song. You just want to sing it that's all that needs to be said. High school college festival community choirs. Easy to medium.

Morton Gould's Ballads from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'the earlybird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Par WEIR JUDITH. Celebrate HM The Queen's 90th Birthday with your choir Sing Judith Weir's special new choral piece I Love All Beauteous Things Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir, has been commissioned by St Paul's Cathedral in London to write a piece for SATB choir and organ in celebration of HM The Queen's 90th birthday in 2016. The piece is now available from Chester Music, so that choirs all over the world can join in with the festivities. Churches and other local organisations are planning events on Sunday 12th June and many may want to include this approachable setting of Robert Bridges' poem. Directed by Andrew Carwood, the St Paul's Cathedral Choir will perform I love all beauteous things as part of the National Service of Thanksgiving which will take place on at 11am on 10 June in the presence of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. At the service the Archbishop of Canterbury will give the address and the Prime Minister will read a lesson. The event will be televised live on BBC1. Judith Weir comments: 'It is a particular honour to contribute new music for this great occasion, and a pleasure to write a choral version of Robert Bridges' beautiful verse.' Preview the score here Download the digital sheet music here COMPOSER'S NOTE At the suggestion of Michael Hampel, Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral, I have set words by Robert Bridges, who was Poet Laureate from 1913-1930. Bridges was an outstanding humanitarian and writer, whose poetry has inspired me before in The Voice of Desire, a song-cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano. This short, fast-tempo setting aims to emulate the swift, fleet-footed rhyme and metre of the two-verse poem, with its unobtrusive but telling reference to 'man in his hasty days'. J.W. Commissioned by the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral to mark the 90th birthday of HM The Queen, generously supported by the Boltini Trust. Performed at the National Service of Thanksgiving for HM The Queen's birthday at St Paul's Cathedral, London, on Friday 10th June 2016 in the presence of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Music by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music, words by Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate in the year HM The Queen was born. Duration c. 3½ minutes I LOVE ALL BEAUTEOUS THINGS words by Robert Bridges OM (1844-1930) Poet Laureate 1913-30 I love all beauteous things, I seek and adore them - God hath no better praise, And man in his hasty days Is honoured for them. I too will something make And joy in the making - Altho' to-morrow it seem Like the empty words of a dream Remembered on waking. (I love all beauteous things, etc…)/ Feuillet / Choeur Mixte (SATB) et Orgue

Muhly fell in love with Byrd’s setting of the Christmas words Senex Puerum Portabat as a chorister so much that the ‘fluidity of the lines the relentless lilting rhythm and the way Byrd both avoided and cradled the text’ that he was inspired to follow a life in music. Early in his career he set the same text in modern style. The first statement of the words is a capella with ecstatic brass entering in the restatement. The ancient Hodie Christus Natus Est follows on seamlessly in a new mood.Contemporary American composer Nico Muhly is a prolific writer and arranger who at 32 is the youngest composer ever to have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Operain New York. His oeuvre includes two operas and many solo pieces and works for small ensemble Orchestra and Chorus and he has collaborated widely.

Quoting Burgon: My first thought on receiving this commission was what sort of text would suit. Something on the general idea of growth - starting very small and blossoming was the obvious way to go but it wasn’t until I foundthe Andrew Marvell poem Music’s Empire that I really got going. The poem is about the invention and development of music; this might sound a bit dry but in fact it is both charming and dramatic and it is also apt in that it canbe set for both solo voice and chorus.The other factor to be considered in writing this piece was the Purcell connection. Purcell wrote Come Ye Sons of Art in 1964 the year the bank was founded and this piece is alsoincluded in the celebratory concert. So I wanted to include some homage to HP as well.Marvell’s poem is the sort of text that Purcell might have set had he come across it. It is a sort of Ode of text that Purcell might haveset had he come across it. It is a sort of Ode to St Cecelia and he wrote one of those as we know. So I have referred to Purcell in two particular ways; I have quoted Come Ye sons of Art directly and I have used thecountertenor. Purcell himself sang countertenor in many of his own pieces and wrote some of the most gorgeous music ever written for that voice. I also happened to love both Purcell’s music and the countertenor so writing thispiece was really a labour of love.It is scored for countertenor mixed chorus and symphony of orchestra - rather larger than any orchestra that Purcell had access to as far as I know but one in which I’m sure he would haverevelled in given the opportunity. It is about ten minutes in duration.

Gabriel Jackson's All Shall Be Amen for unaccompanied SATB choir (with divisions). First performed by the Choir of St Luke's Episcopal Church Evanston Illinois in 2016 this powerful motet sets a reflective text by Augustine of Hippo. Connoisseurs of Jackson's music will recognise the hallmarks of his highly accessible style: inventive harmony that is largely diatonic but never plain and textures that encompass the blazingly sonorous and the expressively intimate.

'From the Beginning of the World was commissioned by the Cardinall’s Musick and premiered at Cadogan Hall on the 20th July 2015 in the first of the 2015 BBC Proms Chamber Music Concerts. The concert launched The Tallis Edition a new project by the ensemble with an aim to throw new light on Tallis’s work and part of the commission brief was that my new piece should be a homage to this great English polyphonist. I spent several weeks in libraries attempting to find a suitable text eventually settling on excerpts from Tycho Brahe’s German Treatise on the Great Comet of 1577. Whether Tallis knew about the comet is unknown of course but this seismic event to me seemed emblematic of all the great changes that occurred during his lifetime in areas such as religion the calendar and time-keeping (finding out that Tallis lived out his last days in Greenwich was an extra bonus). The text also seems to speak to contemporary times: whilst Brahe may have thought the comet’s birth would cause the sun to ‘bring unnatural heat’ nowadays we know that its ‘venom [will be] spewed over the lands’ due to mankind’s continued pillaging of the earth’s natural resources. Yet our political ‘pseudo prophets’ prefer to distract us with an austerity delusion rather than confront a reality perpetuated by certain corporations for whom ‘seek[ing] their own honour’ is of primary value. The music itself is very influenced by Tallis and canons and imitation abound. During my time as a ‘cellist at the Yehudi Menuhin School I performed Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis many times and so From the Beginning of the World which also uses Tallis’s Third Mode Melody from the English Hymnal is really a homage to both composers.' - Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Ed. critica di Alessandro Borin - ril. brochure-La Gloria E Imeneo RV 687 belongs to a group of so-called ‘French serenatas’ by Antonio Vivaldi namely a series of works composed and performed between the mid-1710s and mid-1720s of the eighteenth century in celebration of important recurrent and non-recurrent events relating to the Kingdom of France and its diplomatic representatives resident in Italy.This serenata was indeed commissioned from Vivaldi by the French ambassador in Venice Jacques-Vincent Languet Count of Gergy on the occasion of the wedding of Louis XV to the Polish princess Maria Leszczyska and was performed during a festa that took place inthe ambassador’s garden on the evening of 12 September 1725.This critical edition is based on the autograph score held by Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria of Turin. It also includes an Introduction that describes the genesis and the first performance of the Serenata the state of the sources and its musical content. The critical edition includes an apparatus that records all the variants between the autograph score and the secondary collate sources and a diplomatic- interpretative edition of the poetic text inferred – since no libretto has come down to us – by the words underlaid to the notes in the manuscript of the serenata.

Ed. critica di Alessandro Borin - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte di A. Frigé-The present reduction derives from the critical edition of the score of La Gloria E Imeneo published in this catalogue. The opera belongs to a group of the so-called ‘French serenatas’ by Antonio Vivaldi namely a series of works composed and performed between the mid-1710s and mid- 1720s of the eighteenth century in celebration of important recurrent and non-recurrent events relating to the Kingdom of France and its diplomatic representatives resident in Italy.This serenata was indeed commissioned from Vivaldi by the French ambassador in Venice Jacques-Vincent Languet Count of Gergy on theoccasion of the wedding of Louis XV to the Polish princess Maria Leszczyska and was performed during a festa that took place in the ambassador’s garden on the evening of 12 September 1725.This edition is based on the autograph score held by Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria of Turin. It includes a brief Introduction and a critical apparatus that records all the variants between the autograph score and the secondary collate sources.

Jean Berger's All Things That Rise Will Fall from 'Two Proverbs' for SATB choir a cappella with Soprano solo.

A jolly Christmas carol-This lively carol was commissioned in 2005 by Lichfield Cathedral Special Choir (now called the Cathedral Chorus) to celebrate the birth of Hannah Scriven and Holly Mason the daughters of the two cathedral organists at that time. The words were specially written by Tony Barnard the then Canon Chancellor at Lichfield and a member of the choir. This carol whilst not entirely foreign to my normal style touches more ‘country and western’/popular buttons than I am in the habit of touching. But I wanted to write a tuneful piece which swayed and danced and reflected the colourful imagery of Tony Barnard’s text. Recommended recording: Comeout Lazar – The shorter choral works of Paul Spicer (Regent REGCD280) by The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College Cambridge and Claire Innes-Hopkins (organ) directed by Sarah MacDonald. Text: This child of God who’s born on Christmas day whom shepherds view to whom kings homage pay is called to be a shepherd and a king. Sing alleluias praise this wondrous thing. This child of God is shepherd born to lead through pastures green by banks of golden reed; nor left nor right but ever on the way which leads to Calvary and endless day. This child of God this Son of David’s line is root of tree a shoot a fruitful vine it shelter gives to all who see the way which leads them to the cross and Easter day. This child of God this many spangled star is light’ning flash which dazzles near and far; bright light to guide our feet along the way that leads to Calvary and endless day. This child of God is called to save mankind to open eye and ear the heart and mind; to heal and make the lame man leap and play along the road that leads to Easter Day. This child of God let angel voices praise. Give God the glory live his loving ways. Let peace on earth o’er come our worldly strife through all who walk his road throughout their life. Tony Barnard

Morton Gould's A Bird In Hand from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Morton Gould's The Early Bird from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'

Morton Gould's Hallelujah Amen from 'Quotations' for Double Chorus of Mixed Voices and Wind Orchestra. Piano reduction.This work was commissioned by L. Anthony Fisher for the New York Choral Society Robert DeComier conductor and first performed by them on January 28 1983 at Carnegie Hall.The composer after thinking over the possible approaches to a choral work found the ide of platitudes common sayings and poetic referenmces challanging and stimulating. As 'Quotations' evolved he found that these sayings evoked nostalgic momories of his own childhood in Richmond Hill New York where he was reared on such aphorisms as 'theearly bird catches the worm ' 'a stitch in time saves nine ' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'After setting the scene in Richmond Hill the piece begins with Hallelujah Amen the common shout for joy and closing whisper of all religions. An antiphonal series of platitudes follows and then moves to more complex secular litanies the 'ballads ' or stories of young love and old age and the precariousness of life which have been told and retold through the ages. In the last movement the religious litany resumes with 'ashes to ashes dust to dust' echoing the earlier prosaic motif 'here today gone tomorrow ' or as Gould finally writes 'time's up!'