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Voicing:
SATB a cappella
Text:
Ordering info: Randall Egan EC-361
Level of Difficulty: easy
Duration: 2’ |
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A straight-forward arrangement of the beloved Kirkpatrick tune, suitable
for church, school, and community choirs; also works well as a quartet. |
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Voicing: SSATB
Text: from William Baldwin's translation (1553) of the Song of Solomon
Order: Canadian
Music Centre
Level of Difficulty: moderate
Duration: 5'
This work was commissioned by Spiritus Chamber Choir, Calgary,
Janet Youngdahl, conductor in 2004. |
Christ my Beloved which still doth feed
Among the flowers, having delight
Among his faithful lilies,
Doth take great care for me indeed,
And I again with all my might
Will do what so his will is.
My Love in me, and I in him,
Conjoined by love will still abide
Among the faithful lilies.
Till day do break, and truth do dim
All shadows dark, and cause them slide
According as his will is.
William Baldwin (c. 1515-1563)
from The Canticles of Salomon (1549) |
Easter
Voicing: SSATB a cappella
Text: George Herbert
Ordering info: Canadian
Music Centre
Level of Difficulty: Moderately difficult
Duration: 3'20"
This
was commissioned by Da Camera Singers, Edmonton and
premiered March 13, 2005.
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| Voicing: SATB
organ, brass octet (4 trp. 3 trb. tba) tmp. and percussion
Ordering info: Canadian
Music Centre.
Level of Difficulty: Moderate
Duration: 3’30’
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This is an arrangement of the well-known Crusader's Hymn (uses public
domain text from mid-nineteenth century) for mixed chorus, optional
audience, brass octet, organ and percussion.
It was commissioned by the CBC Radio Two program Choral
Concert for the "Easter Sunrise Celebration" April 15,
2001 in Edmonton, Alberta.
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Voicing:
TTBB and piano or SATB and piano;
Ordering info: Classica
Music Publishers.
Difficulty:
Moderate
Duration:5' |
Text from William Shakespeare's
The Tempest
Full fadom five
thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! Now I hear them, - Ding-dong, bell.
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TTBB Version
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SATB Version
look inside
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Commissioned
by Da Camera Singers, Edmonton in 2004, and first performed by them on March
13, 2005. Other choirs that have performed Fathom are Chor Leoni
and the University of Guelph Chamber Singers. The SATB arrangement was completed
in June 2007.
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Gentle
Mary Laid Her Child
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Voicing: 1)
SATB and piano 2) SSA and pno. 3) SAB and pno. 4) TTBB and pno.
Text: Joseph Simpson Cook
Publisher: Canadian
International Music ; in Europe Unisong
Music Publishers
Level of Difficulty: easy
Duration: 3’
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| Available for order from these fine
stores: |
This
is one of my more accessible choral works. The optional solo in all of
the versions is very ‘mid-range', and suitable for all types of
voices. In each of the four versions the second verse is harmonized and
intended to be sung unaccompanied. The last verse is for unison choir
and descant. The four published arrangements appear in three different
keys and can be interchanged if desired. The first version was the SATB
piece which was composed in 1994, followed by the SSA in 1995. Both of
these were part of the very first group of publications released by Canadian
International Music in 1996 (and Lorenz Corporation in the U.S.A.) The
SAB and TTBB versions of the work were completed in 2000 and published
in 2001. A complete recording (SATB) is available at J.W. Pepper, and
any of the four versions are obtainable through Sheetmusic.com and Music
44, among other well-known retailers. In 2005, Gentle Mary was
translated into both Dutch and German and is available through the European
Choral Club. |
| view
scores of the various voicings |
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Recorded on
 Gentle
Mary Laid Her Child
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SATB
look inside |
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TTBB
look inside |
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LOVE
COME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS |
Voicing:
SATB and piano
Text: Christina Rossetti
Publisher: Cantate Music Press CAN1060
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 5’
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| This work has been beautifully sung by Da Camera
Singers (a 1999 commission), Pro Coro Canada, and The University of Calgary
Chamber Choir. |
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Recorded on:
Toi, moi, tout un monde,
Mon clair de la lune
Chorale
Saint-Jean,
Dr. Laurier Fagnan, artistic
director,
Catherine Kubash, assistant director
Jane Fagnan, accompanist
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Voicing:
SATB and piano, with Mezzo-soprano solo
Text: Traditional and France Levasseur-Ouimet
Ordering info: Editions ACQ (L'Alliance
des chorales du Québec)
(ACQ446B-CHA)
Level of Difficulty: easy
Duration: 3'30"
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look
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| This piece combines the traditional French
folk tune Mon Ami Pierrot with new material. The
arrangement was commissioned by Chorale Saint-Jean,
Edmonton for their tour of Quebec in July, 2005. Text is
in French but is familiar enough to be picked up easily
by non-francophone choral groups. The setting is accessible
and fun to perform. You will need a solo voice that can
project below middle C. |
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Level
of Difficulty: moderately difficult
Duration: 5’ |
| Commissioned
by I Coristi, Dr. Debra Cairns, conductor, for their tenth anniversary season,
this piece sets a haunting poem by Francis Ledwidge entitled My Mother.
This is an unpublished work. Listen to a short clip from the wonderful new
recording from I Coristi's entitled "Echoes: Ten Years of
Song" |
NOU
GOTH SONNE UNDER WODE |
| Voicing:
SATB chorus, male narrator, soprano solo, and chamber orchestra (2ob.,
2hrn.,timp.,
perc.[1 player], hrp., org., strings).
Text: Latin and Middle English poetry
Ordering info: classica
Music
Publishers
Level of Difficulty: soprano-moderate, chorus-moderate, orchestra-moderately
easy.
Duration: 30'
Pro Coro's 2007 performance was broadcast
on CBC Radio 2, Choral Concert
Sunday, February 17, 2008.
This work was premiered in 2005 by Pro Coro
Canada and the Pro Coro Chamber Orchestra, Timothy Anderson, narrator;
Jolaine Kerley, soprano;
Richard Sparks, conductor.
Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Alberta
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REVIEWS
"It was Mozart's Requiem that
drew 1,700 people to Pro Coro's Good Friday concert, but it was the world
premier of Bevan's Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode that propelled them to their
feet at its conclusion, and for good reason.
...The choir, soloist Jolaine Kerley, narrator Timothy Anderson and a
select group of Edmonton Symphony players delivered what sounded like
it could be a definitive performance of this contemporary work...Anderson
did a theatrically accomplished job of conveying the persona of Christ
in His excruciating last hours and as raconteur of the gospel story about
Jesus' physical and psychological torment on the cross...[The] Kyrie is
technically masterful and moving...almost pastoral, as though the deity
addressed were the great consoler...Bevan's orchestration is full of fine
detail right down to some imaginative timpani parts..." -Bill
Rankin, The Edmonton Journal, March 27th, 2005
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The Composer's
Guild's described Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode
as, "A marvelous work...impressed by the intellectual and emotional
breadth, [and] beautiful counterpoint." The "instrumental parts
are haunting, the key relationships striking. What a piece!"
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" The
audience’s overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to Pro Coro Canada’s
world-premiere performance of Allan Bevan’s ingenious composition
certifies this work as a modern-day classic. You will not want to miss
this performance!"--Pro Coro Canada.
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This five-movement oratorio in a traditional
harmonic language combines Middle English (1100-1500) devotional texts with
Latin and Greek liturgical and biblical texts to produce a work that is
a "meditation on the Crucifixion". It is suitable for concert
performance on Good Friday, or during the Lenten season or Holy Week.
The composition is based on medieval legend and theology, and is intended
as a musical representation of the imago pietatis, a visual depiction
of the crucified Christ that was commonly sketched into manuscripts of early
English verse, particularly in the fifteenth century. Another unusual aspect
of this work is the research that went into determining the possible sound
of the poetry. A reconstruction of English speech from ca. 1400 (which is
thought to have been noticeably different from modern English) was chosen
as the norm for the work, and a complete transcription from the International
Phonetic Alphabet is provided for each of the numbers in order to give conductor
and singers an idea of where to begin. |
O Canada,
arr.
Voicing: SSA soloists or chorus, and SATB a cappella, or with
optional brass accompaniment
Text: French and English
Ordering info: Contact
composer
Level of Difficulty: easy
Duration: 1'
Canada's National Anthem, arranged in both official languages.
This was commissioned for the World Nordic Games in Thunder
Bay, Ontario, March 1995. Allan
Bevan's arrangement of O Canada (1995)
has been chosen by Kristine Forney to be incorporated into
the learning materials for the tenth edition of The Enjoyment
of Music published by W.W. Norton. The work was recorded
by the choir of California State University, Long Beach in
the fall of 2005.
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O Lord Increase
My Faith
Voicing: SATB a cappella
Text: Trad.
Ordering info: Randall Egan EC-363
Level of Difficulty: easy
Duration: 2’ |
This was composed in 1980
(rev. 1996), published 2002. My first choral work!
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Voicing:
SATB (with some divisi)
a cappella
Text: Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
Level of Difficulty: moderate
Duration: 3'30"
Publisher:
CLASSICA
Music Publishers
www.classica.ca
listen
to the University of Alberta
Madrigal Singers
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Recorded
on:
Songs
of the Soul
I
Coristi Chamber Choir,
Debra Cairns, conductor
Three
Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan
i. The Eclipse
ii. The Revival
iii. Peace
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The final number of Three
Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan, Peace was composed in
2001 and first sung and recorded on, My Soul There is a Country
by the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Leonard
Ratzlaff, conductor. Under assistant conductor, Ardelle Ries, Peace
was part of the 2002 tour repertoire of the Madrigal Singers and was one
of the choir’s submissions to the CBC Competition for Amateur Choirs.
Later in 2002, Peace was chosen from among 45 submissions by
Canadian composers as the winning work in the 2002 Ruth Watson Henderson
Choral Composition Competition, sponsored by Choirs Ontario.Recently,
the "Mads" performed Peace at the ACDA convention in
Los Angeles in February 2005.
This work was released by classica
Music Publishers in the fall of 2004. |
SINGERS TO COME
Voicing:
Mixed Voices and piano
Text: Alice Meynell
Ordering info: The
Canadian Music Centre
Level of Difficulty: Moderately difficult
listen to
the Centennial Choir
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Recorded
on:
Centennial Choral Celebration
Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor
To order score click here:
The
Canadian Music Centre
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Text
from A Poet’s Fancies IX
by Alice Meynell (1847-1922)
Singers to come, what thoughts will start
To song? What words of yours be sent
Through man’s soul, and with earth be blent?
These worlds of nature and the heart
Await you like an instrument.
Who knows what musical flocks of words
Upon these pine-tree tops will light,
And crown these towers in circling flight,
And cross these seas like summer birds,
And give a voice to the day and night?
Something of you already is ours;
Some mystic part of you belongs
To us whose dreams your future throngs,
Who look on hills, and trees, and flowers,
Which will mean so much in your songs.
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Allan
Bevan's Singers to Come for mixed voices and
piano, was commissioned by the Alberta Centennial Choral Celebration,
Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor. Highlights
of the Calgary concert, including Singers to Come, were broadcast
on Our Music,
on Sunday November 6, 2006 on CBC Radio Two. Now available on a fantastic
2 CD set which features music from all three of the concerts (see below
for details).
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Voicing:
SATB a cappella
Text: St. Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1659) translated by J. Edgar Middleton
(1872-1960)
Publisher: Canadian
International Music CIM-1016 (U.S. Lorenz Corp.)
Level of Difficult: Easy
Duration: 2' 30"
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Recorded on: |
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Balulalow
University of Alberta Madrigal Singers
Leonard Ratlaff,
conductor
The
Huron Carol |
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In
Dulci Jubilo
The Choirs of Christ Church Cathedral Montreal
Patrick Wedd,
conductor |
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Voicing:
SATB (with some divisi)
a cappella
Text: Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
Level of Difficulty: moderate
Duration: 4'
Publisher:
CLASSICA
Music Publishers
www.classica.ca
listen
to the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers
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Recorded
on:
Songs
of the Soul
I
Coristi Chamber Choir,
Debra Cairns, conductor
Three
Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan
i. The Eclipse
ii. The Revival
iii. Peace
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THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS
(setting 1) |
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Voicing:
SATB a cappella
Text: Wisdom 3: 1-3 (Apocrypha)
Ordering info: Randall Egan EC-362
Level of Difficulty: Easy-medium
Duration: 2’ |
This piece was composed in 1985 (published
2002) as a memorial for my father.
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THE
SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS (setting 2-SATB) |
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Voicing: SATB
a cappella
Text: Wisdom 3: 1-3 (Apocrypha)
Ordering info: Cypress Choral Music
Level of Difficulty: Moderate
Duration: 3’
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| This work is an SATB version
of Souls of the Righteous for TTBB setting composed in 2000 (see manuscripts
for details). It is not exactly the same, however. I allowed this version
to develop differently, and the ending takes a completely different turn.
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THE
TIME DRAWS NEAR THE BIRTH OF CHRIST |
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Voicing: SATB (extensive divisi) and piano
Text: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)
Ordering info: Canadian
Music Centre.
Level of Difficulty: Challenging (expressive male singers
required)
Duration: 7'30"
 listen
to Pro Coro Canada
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REVIEWS:
This work was commissioned by Pro
Coro Canada for their Christmas concert, December 8, 2002,
and repeated Dec. 14, 2003. The following is an excerpt
from the 2003 concert review: ..."Bevan has a great
gift for choral composition. This piece gives a choir
with four strong sections the chance to shine... Bevan
conveys the reflective text by Tennyson thoughtfully,
with a very coherent choice of contemplative tempo and
poignant harmonies. The unresolved chord of the last verse
is full of the ambivalence in the poem". - Bill Rankin,
The Edmonton Journal, Dec. 15, 2003
“For him Bevan’s new work is a particular
thrill: ‘Singing this piece is like putting your
hand inside a favourite glove. It fits the voice so well…But
what is even more amazing is how expertly [it] fits into
the ‘glove’ of the text’ ”. …
Allison Kydd, The Edmonton Journal, quoting David Garber,
a singer in Pro Coro Canada
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Text from Tennyson's
In Memoriam
The
time draws near the birth of Christ:
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from
hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
Four
voices of four hamlets round,
From far and near, on mead
and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if
a door
Were shut between me and the sound:
Each
voice four changes on the wind,
That now dilate, and now
decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill
and peace,
Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
This
year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish'd no more
to wake,
And that my hold on life
would break
Before I heard those bells again:
But
they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll'd me when
a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch'd
with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.
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THREE
MOTETS ON TEXTS OF HENRY VAUGHAN |
Voicing:
SATB (with some divisi)
a cappella
Text: Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
Level of Difficulty: moderate
Duration: 11'00"
Publisher:
CLASSICA
Music Publishers
www.classica.ca
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Recorded
on:
My
Soul, There is a Country...
University
of Alberta Madrigal Singers
Leonard
Ratzlaff, conductor
www.ualberta.ca/~mads
available through
ARKTOS Recordings
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Recorded
on:
Songs
of the Soul
I
Coristi Chamber Choir,
Debra Cairns, conductor
Three
Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan
i. The Eclipse
ii. The Revival
iii. Peace
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| listen
to the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers |
listen
to the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers |
listen
to the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers |
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These motets were composed between 1999 and 2001. The Revival and
The Eclipse were completed first with Peace being added
later. Unlike For A Dream's Sake, which was composed from the
very beginning as a cycle, these motets only became a group about a year
and a half after work first began. For this reason, performances of the
work as separate pieces is certainly possible, but listen to the University
of Alberta Madrigal Singers sing the complete cycle. They make a strong
case for doing them as a group.
The three poetic texts come from different times in Vaughan's
life but they share his faith, and powerful Christian vision.
By assembling the three previously unrelated poetic texts
in the way that I have, a 'life of Christ' from the Crucifixion to the
Ascension is suggested. Number one, The Eclipse, refers to the
events of Good Friday, while The Revival describes the Resurrection,
bearing reference to the famous passage in the Song of Solomon that Healey
Willan set so brilliantly in Rise Up My Love. The final number,
Peace, has nothing to do with peace on earth, but rather, refers
to the peace of heaven, and to the Ascension of Christ.
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Upon
a Night
Voicing:
SATB (div.), flute and harp
Text: Jon Washburn
Ordering info: Unpublished
Level of Difficulty: Moderate
Duration: 5'
This work was part
of a suite of four newly-commissioned Christmas carols composed
to texts by Vancouver Chamber Choir conductor, Jon Washburn.(The
other composers were Peter Berring, Ed Henderson, and Brian
Tate). All four pieces received their premieres at Ryerson United
Church, Vancouver, December 19 and 21, 2003.
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