New releases by
Walton (Play with your Food!, Peace on Earth...and lots of little
crickets), SBMP (Unending Flame- two voicings)
April 2008
A large-scale
commissioned piece for The Festival Singers (Madison, Wisconsin) will be
composed over the summer of 2008. This multi-movement piece will be
premiered in the Spring of 2009.
November 2007 A new Hanukkah piece, Unending
Flame, for children's choir with orchestra, commissioned by the
Grammy winning Michigan State University Children's Choir will be
premiered Dec. 1st.The piece will also be sung Dec. 16th by
the MSU Children's Choir with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. The piece
will be published by Santa Barbara as SA/clarinet/piano and SABar/clarinet/piano.
the orchestrated version will also be available Click here for details...or visit wwwlansingsymphony.org
August 2007
The Festival Choir
of Madison (WI), with new artistic director Drew Collins, has announced
Paul Carey as their composer-in-residence for the 2007-2008 and
2008-2009 concert seasons. The choir will perform various
published pieces by Mr. Carey as well as new works in manuscript and
works-in-progress. This collaboration between the choir, Drew, and Paul
is expected to bring a new level of excitement to the Madison choral
music scene. The two-year arrangement will culminate in a concert of
music hand-picked and conducted by Mr. Carey. Please visit
www.festivalchoir.org
to learn more about the choir, its history, and
its plans for upcoming concerts.
July 2007
The Illinois ACDA chose "Thou Art the Sky"
as the winner of its 2007 Choral Composition Contest. The piece will
be published by Roger Dean in February, 2008.
June 2007
Santa Barbara Music Press releases two new pieces
this month:
Alley Cat Love Song, (Catalog # 737),
very vampy text and tune, in the Sharon Hansen women’s choir series.
This should be a big seller- audiences have loved it while it was
being performed in ms. There is a recording on the
SBMP.com website
Another fun text- Jenny
Kiss’d Me (CAT # 718), in Jerry Blackstone’s SBMP series for TTBB.
This was premiered by the University of Michigan Glee Club a couple
months ago. There is also a recording of this piece on the
SBMP.com website.
April 2007
Commissions announced for the upcoming
2007-2008 concert season
The
Nebraska Choral Arts Society, Matthew Harden artistic
director, has commissioned a piece for the 25th anniversary
celebration of their organization, to be premiered at their annual
December Festival of Christmas Brass and Choral Music. The new piece
will be scored for children's choir, mixed choir, and brass ensemble.
The Michigan
State University Children's Choir, directed by Grammy winner Mary
Alice Stollak, has commissioned two pieces for the 2006-1007 season.
One of the pieces will be for children's choir and small orchestra.
The Milwaukee
Choral Artists, directed by Sharon Hansen, has commissioned a
piece to commemorate their tenth anniversary, to be premiered in early
2008.
Interested in commissioning a piece for your group? It's not too late
to have a piece specially written for you for 2007-2008.
E-mail me for details. If you have never commissioned a piece of
music before, try it. It's great fun and really quite often brings a
whole new level of excitement and pride to a musical organization.
January 2007
NEW RELEASES!
some of these are available now
and the rest will be out in time for the March ACDA national Convention
in Miami
The Night is Young
SATB a.c. cat. # 9780193869530
A very sweet, contemporary Irish folk music piece about staying
connected to family and good friends - would be great as a concert or
season-ender and especially as a graduation piece- HS and up
The Water is Wide
SABar/piano cat. #9780193869523
An SABar version of this English folk song that has sold very well in
its SA/piano form. Middle school and up
The White Rose
SSA/violin/piano Cat. #WLG125 (to order, use HL08501630)
Written for Sigrid Johnson and premiered at St. Olaf. A very lush love
poem -– nice recording on my website (click on the song title above).
My Friend Elijah
SATB a.c. divisi Cat. #WJMS1088 (to order, use HL08501621)
A most unusual poem by Natalie Goldberg, set like a Moses Hogan
spiritual. The text provokes a lot of fun discussion and the piece has
been a big hit in its performances while in manuscript form. A very
popular piece!
The
Charge of the Snail Brigade
SA/piano/optional bass drum and snare Cat. # 6335
Text is a clever parody of Charge of the Light Brigade -- great for
children’s choirs and other treble choirs looking for fun music.
Santa Barbara www.sbmp.com
Loosin Yelav
two versions:
SA/piano Cat. # SBMP 679 and SATB/violin/piano # SBMP 698
A sublime Armenian folk song about the beautiful rising moon. Dawn
Upshaw has been singing the solo version of this lately (arr. by Luciano
Berio). Nice recording soon of both versions on my website. The Armenian
is easy to learn.
Ain’ dat- a rockin’ all night
SATB with solos, a.c. Cat. # 15/2309R-2
For the Charles Bruffy series with Roger Dean. A gentle, slightly
syncopated spiritual about Mary and baby Jesus. Very intimate. HS and
up.
Life has Loveliness to sell
SSA/piano Cat. # 15/2314L
This text has been set a lot, usually all happy and major. Mine is in
minor and reflects, still with many moments of beauty, poet Sara
Teasdale’s troubled inner life. Recording coming soon!
Seal Lullaby
SA/piano Cat. # 15/2328R
A very pretty setting of Rudyard Kipling’s sweet poem. Perfect for
children’s choirs.
Cantigas de Amigo (5 movements)
SSA/piano in Spanish
Each movement published separely, thus Cat.# 15/2323R, 15/2324R,
15/2325R, 15/2326R, 15/2327R
Wonderful texts for HS and up women’s choirs from an old oral tradition
in Spain and Portugal. The settings are quite varied and the piece has
been very popular while in manuscript form.
July 2006
Announcing the orchestration of
"I Saw Three Ships"
SSA with
small orchestra My best-selling
Oxford University Press choral octavo is now available in choir/orchestral form. I hope you will consider this
piece for your
holiday programs!
I Saw Three
Ships
original SSA/piano octavo cat number 0-19-386690-0
The orchestra
rental cat. number is 9780193869486
The choral octavo syncs with the orchestration; ie., purchase the choral octavo for
your signers/rehearsal pianist and order the orchestral rental for
your orchestra.
This
orchestration was performed last year by Becky Reames at SUNY-Potsdam and by Sigrid Johnson at St. Olaf, who syndicated radio
playtime of the piece around the country through Minnesota Public
Radio.
The orchestration
is bright and lively, appropriate for college level and up players,
with the instrumental forces of the usual Rutter Christmas carol
orchestrations. This means that if you have decided to do some of
the familiar Rutter Christmas songs with orchestra rental parts from
Oxford, the I Saw Three Ships orchestration
would be using virtually the same forces:
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 bassoon, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, harp (could be
played on synth), strings, percussion -- needs
two players: glockenspiel, chimes, triangle, cymbals
For further
information on renting this orchestration contact:
Frances Levy. Manager,
Rental Library
212-726-6049' FAX: 212-726-6441
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
Fran’s e-mail is
frances.levy@oup.com
Rental rates are
reasonable and are on a sliding scale.
Orders should booked by October 31 at the latest.
New Release!
A new, very different, very
hard driving arrangement of the spiritual
Go Down, Moses
has just been released by Santa Barbara Music Press in Daniel
Hughes new series. The voicing is SATB/piano/shaker percussion. The
catalog number will be SBMP 657. Please keep an eye out for this new
piece!
Available early 2007 My Friend Elijah,
SATB, divisi a.c.
I'm really excited that Walton is publishing
this piece. The choirs who have sung it in manuscript have really
enjoyed both the incredibly creative, unusual text by Natalie
Goldberg and my music, which is a quasi-spiritual in the Moses Hogan
vein but with a twist of swing. The Michigan 2006 All-State Honors
Choir, directed by Sharon Hansen, rocked on this piece. The piece
has also been sung by Grinnell College singers and will be sung soon
by Hope College singers, directed by Brad Richmond.
Also coming early 2007 The White Rose, a very lush
piece for SSA/solo violin, & piano.
This piece was dedicated to and premiered by Sigrid Johnson at St. Olaf
College. Sigrid will also feature it in reading sessions for the Oklahoma
ACDA summer convention where she is the headliner clinician.
The piece will also be part of the repertoire for the Colorado
All-State Women's Choir in 2006-2007, directed by Lynne Gackle
March 2005
Roger Dean, the
select division of the
Lorenz Music
company, will be publishing
Where Go the Boats
in Janet Galvan’s Roots and Wings Series. Check back for publication
date.
Another recently completed piece which was commissioned as a memorial,
Thanksgiving,
for SA/piano, will be published soon in Mary Alice Stollak’s series
with Santa
Barbara Music Press. Check back for publication date.
Other recently completed pieces: This Sparkle of the Day,
written for Nancy Menk and the Saint Mary’s College Women’s Choir, is a
five movement SSA/organ piece which includes wonderful texts by Saint
Theresa of Avila, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and Saint Hilary. The piece
is somewhat reminiscent of the Faure Messe Basse in approach,
length, and intimacy.
For the Beauty of the Day;
SATB a cappella choir, with a baritone solo.
little tree,
commissioned by the Michigan State University Children’s Choir, on a
delightful E.E. Cummings text, to be premiered in December 2005.
March 2005
Just completed... (details and sample scores coming soon)
Where Go the Boats An SA setting
of Robert Louis Stevenson's lovely poem with a beautiful, flowing piano
accompaniment
The Nativity
of Our Lord An SATB a cappella piece
in six miniature movements for church or concert use, telling the story
of the nativity from Isaiah's prophecies through Luke. The writing is
luminous throughout.
And two new double choir pieces!
God is My Salvation
Double SATB choir with two
trumpets, a majestic tour de force
The Wexford Carol An SSAA arrangement of
this enchanting carol which harkens back to its Celtic roots
The Night Is Young An SATB arrangement of
Colum Sands' wonderful piece. The text is profound! Suitable for many
levels of choir, this would be a great piece to end any concert, or
perform as an encore.
The Latest...
The Michigan State University
Children's Choir and director Mary Alice Stollak announce Paul Carey as the
choice for their 2005 commission. They have recently released their new
CD "What Sweeter Music" which features "I
Saw Three Ships" and
"Cradle
Song." Truly stellar peformances!
