This quirky spirited piece is in the style of a blues waltz and based on the mythical legend of the squonk a forest creature that dissolves into a pool of tears when it is cornered. However on dark moonless nights when no one is about they gathertogether to sing and dance the Squonk Blues! A unique change of pace this composition uses the first six notes of the B-flat scale.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a...wait a minute! The mice are stirring and are eating everything in sight! The elves are in a panic Santa and Mrs. Claus areupset...will Christmas be cancelled? Celebrate the season with this delightful holiday musical that features 5 original songs with easy-to-learn rhyming dialog.The Teacher's Manual includes songs script and ideas forcostumes choreography and sets. The Singer's Edition features vocal lines and dialog only and if you're performing with a 'cast of thousands' choose the handy Reproducible Pak (vocal lines lyric sheets anddialog).Available: Teacher's Manual Singer's Edition (5-Pak) Reproducible Pak Preview Cassette Performance/Accompaniment CD. For Grades K-4.

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.'

The Lamb one of composer John Tavener’s most beloved frequently-performed and often-recorded works was composed in a single afternoon in 1982 as a gift for the composer’s three-year-old nephew.While the original was an unaccompanied Choral piece that set William Blake’s poem The Lamb this adaptation is an extremely effective and moving work for String Orchestra. The arrangement may be performed aloneor in accompaniment to a Chorus. John Tavener was that rare creature a composer of serious music and serious religious music who also achieved commercial success. He burst into the popular consciousness with theperformance of his Song for Athene at the funeral of Princess Diana but had been a highly respected and frequently-performed composer since the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale in 1968. The Lamb hasappeared on nearly forty different recordings.

A Selkie Tale is a short music-theatre work (duration about 25 minutes) designed for performance by seven- to eleven-year-olds year olds. Four solo roles and several separate chorus groups give scope for the participation of alarge number of children of all ability levels.The story is a humorous version of the Orkney folk-tale of an islander kidnapping a Selkie wife - a creature who is a seal in the sea and a woman on the land. Things gohilariously wrong with the Selkie wife escaping to rejoin her companions in the sea and Mansie the islander facing a most uncongenial alliance with his cousin and housekeeper Miss Trowie-Tattibogle.Vocal score.This isa special item which is made to order. Please e-mail our Mail Order Department for further information.

In Prayer Of The Heart the text of the Eastern Orthodox monastic prayer -- Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Have mercy upon me is sung in a mantra-like way in English Greek and Coptic while a slow recording of a human heartbeatplays. The singer is instructed to ?sit on a low stool bowing towards the heart? and may play the bell and bowl. The piece slowly explores the entire circle of fifths beginning in the key of C and playing each related minorand moving to the related dominant key then repeating until the return to C. It is a profoundly meditative work.The work was originally composed for Icelandic singer Björk and the Brodsky Quartet to benefit the charity TheChain of Hope. It was recorded by the original performers.John Tavener was that rare creature a composer of serious music and serious religious music who had also achieved commercial success. He burst into the popularconsciousness with the performance of his Song for Athene at the funeral of Princess Diana but had been a highly respected and frequently-performed composer since the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale in 1968.

The composer’s note on this copy of the autograph score has the following directions: ‘Out of the Night was written to be played in order to ‘greet the dawn’ outside St Catherine’s Monastery Sinai’ and it is recommended that the work be played outside or in a church or building with some resonance. The sound is Middle Eastern modal invoking the Orthodox Church with the Greek pronunciation of the single word ‘Alleluia’.Tavener was widely known as a composer of religious music and while this work does not fit any liturgical use it communicates the sacredness of a new day. Contemporary British composer John Tavener was that rare creature a composer of serious music andserious religious music who also achieved commercial success. He burst into the popular consciousness with the performance of his Song for Athene at the funeral of Princess Diana but had been a highly respected and frequently performed composer since the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale in 1968.

A Selkie Tale is a short music-theatre work (duration about 25 minutes) designed for performance by seven- to eleven-year-olds year olds. Four solo roles and several separate chorus groups give scope for the participation of a large number of children of all ability levels.The story is a humorous version of the Orkney folk-tale of an islander kidnapping a Selkie wife - a creature who is a seal in the sea and a woman on the land. Things go hilariously wrong with the Selkie wife escaping to rejoin her companions in the sea and Mansie the islander facing a most uncongenial alliance with his cousin and housekeeper Miss Trowie-Tattibogle.Bb woodwind instrumentspart.This is a special item which is made to order. Please e-mail our Mail Order Department for further information.

Director's Manual-The storm clouds are forming and the boat's almost ready! Take a flustered Noah add a wife three rambunctious sons and two of every living creature on the earth and you've got chaos! It'll take a lot of faith to get themthrough forty days and nights of life on this crowded vessel. The sons have their own ideas on how to pass the time with basketball stand-up comedy and a buffet table.The timeless Biblical story of Noah and the Ark istold through the unique perspective of Mom and Dad Elephant (who of course remember it vividly).This easily-prepared 16-minute musical is perfect for younger children's choirs. The reproducible Director's Manual offerspermission to photocopy singer's sheets and dialog making “Don't Rock the Ark” a budget-stretching creative presentation for any time!Available: Director's Manual ChoirTrax CD Preview Cassette RehearsalTrax Pak (contains 12 preview casettes). Performance Time: 20 minutes. For Grades K-3.

A Selkie Tale is a short music-theatre work (duration about 25 minutes) designed for performance by seven- to eleven-year-olds year olds. Four solo roles and several separate chorus groups give scope for the participation of a large number of children of all ability levels.The story is a humorous version of the Orkney folk-tale of an islander kidnapping a Selkie wife - a creature who is a seal in the sea and a woman on the land. Things go hilariously wrong with the Selkie wife escaping to rejoin her companions in the sea and Mansie the islander facing a most uncongenial alliance with his cousin and housekeeper Miss Trowie-Tattibogle.Unpitched percussionpart.This is a special item which is made to order. Please e-mail our Mail Order Department for further information.

All-School Holiday Revue-'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a...wait a minute!?! What's going on here - Mom's running pass plays in the kitchen Sis is doing her best Martha Stewart imitation Dad and the Uncles are taking root in front of the TV and the kids are hmmmm??? Take a light-hearted look at Christmas in the typical American household with clever songs hilarious antics and a full-evening of entertainment thatwill leave your audience in stitches! The Teacher's Manual comes with the full script accompanied songs and choreography suggestions. The Singer's Edition provides vocal lines script and choreography only. Perform the show withpiano alone or add a real 'show biz' touch with the professionally-recorded ShowTrax cassette or CD. Available: Teachers' Manual Singer's Edition 5-Pak Preview CD (Full Performance) ShowTrax Cassette and CD. Performance Time:35-minutes. For Gr. 1-6.