Category: SATB

Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode, Carnegie Hall, 2016

3/2/2016

Richard Sparks (left) and Allan Bevan

Noted conductor, Dr. Richard Sparks will lead a large chorus of singers from Canada and the USA in a performance of my Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode at Carnegie Hall, New York City on Monday, March 7, 2016. Dr. Sparks conducted the first two performances of this work in 2005 and 2007 when he was conductor of Pro Coro Canada. Members of the award-winning Orchestra of Distinguished Concerts International, New York will be the orchestra for the event. The performance will use the new smaller ensemble version of the accompaniment which was scored for seven players by the composer in 2015. The concert, sponsored by DCINY, is open to choirs and/or solo choristers from around the world. Singers will gather in NYC the weekend of March 5-6 to rehearse with Dr. Sparks. 2005 Premiere performance soloists will reprise their roles in New York: soprano Jolaine Kerley as Mary, and Timothy Anderson as the narrator. Allan Bevan will be performing as the organist in the ensemble.

More information at: dciny.org or: info@allanbevan.ca

Can't be a singer but would like to attend the concert? The concert is entitled Between Heaven and Earth
Tickets go on sale December 8, 2015 through the Carnegie Hall web-site. Update March 2, 2016 only a very few tickets to the concert remain.

View the concert Program.

Carnegie Hall

Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode, vocal score

Want to know more about this work?
Completed 2005; large-scale dramatic work on the Passion of Christ for actor, soprano, chorus and orchestra
First performance: Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, Good Friday, March 25, 2005 with Timothy Anderson, actor, Jolaine Kerley, soprano, Pro Coro Canada, Pro Coro Canada Chamber Orchestra, Richard Sparks, conductor. Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode is published by classica Music Publishers. Each Carnegie Hall singer should bring a copy of the vocal score as pictured above to rehearsals. More information about obtaining the music can be found here:

Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode vocal score

Additional Upcoming NGSUW Performances:

Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus, I Coristi Chamber Choir, Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra, Jolaine Kerley, soprano, Timothy Anderson, actor, Rob Curtis, conductor;
Feb. 22/16 Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton

Trinity Western University Masterworks Chorus, conducted by Dr. Joel Tranquilla; March 18/19/2016, Vancouver

No Mortal Business in Edmonton and Toronto

3/1/2016

...and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that,
when I waked, I cried to dream again.
William Shakespeare - The Tempest

Listen to Robert Cooper conduct Geraint Wyn-Davies (The Prologue), Johanne Ansell (The Angel), the Toronto Orpheus Choir and the Talisker Players in the stirring conclusion to Allan Bevan's No Mortal Business.

Robert Cooper, C.M.

Geraint Wyn-Davies

Maeve Palmer

The Toronto Orpheus Choir will be presenting No Mortal Business on the 400th Anniversary date of the Bard's death. The concert is called Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On: The Lyrical Shakespeare, and it will take place at Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, Toronto, on April 23, 2016. Geraint Wyn-Davies will play the part of the Prologue, while soprano Maeve Palmer will sing the role of the Angel. Tickets

The Richard Eaton Singers, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor, will be presenting No Mortal Business at the Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, on Sunday, March 13, 2016, 7:30pm in a concert entitled This Mortal Coil. Timothy Anderson will play the part of the Prologue in this performance and soprano Sarah Schaub will sing the role of the Angel of Death.

Leonard Ratzlaff, C.M.

Timothy Anderson

William Shakespeare - The Sanders Portrait

No Mortal Business is a thirty-minute musical and dramatic fantasy that broods upon Shakespeare’s last years as an actor/dramatist. It uses both spoken and sung text from The Tempest, and some of the author’s other dramas and his sonnets. In this work, these previously unrelated texts become the inner thoughts of Shakespeare speaking as if he is remembering all his most poignant characters at once. From Richard II to The Merchant of Venice and beyond, the Prologue emotes between the musical “Acts” in soliloquy-like passages, then soars above the singing of the chorus and the sound of the orchestra. He puts a voice to the hope, joy, fear, and disappointment that Shakespeare must have felt in a lifetime on the stage. Employing only the words of the Bard himself, No Mortal Business hovers between the Prologue’s inner and outer worlds. At times, he is confused, angry, compassionate, frightened, and profoundly human. His mind is tormented by the constant presence of his own characters, and though he seeks release from his creative turmoil, he is not yet ready to give them all up. In the meantime, the Angel of Death (soprano solo) calls him gently with the long-lost faith of his youth while the chorus bridges the divide between heaven and earth in singing both ancient plainsong and fresh new settings of Ariel's songs from The Tempest. In No Mortal Business the dramatic tension between Prologue, Soloist, Chorus and Orchestra unfolds in a dream-like cascade of Shakespearean sound and sense resulting in a powerful and moving vision of one of the world’s greatest creative figures. (See also "Shakespeare's 400th" elsewhere in this blog for further information on NMB.)

The Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton

Sarah Schaub

Le Pont Mirabeau

9/15/2015

Voicing: SATB a cappella
Text: Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 - 1918)
Published by: Cypress Choral Music CP1275, (2014)
Retail: Sheet Music Plus (you can view the score and listen here); Long and McQuade

A work commissioned by Chorale Saint-Jean, Dr. Laurier Fagnan, director, and first performed in Edmonton by the choir, and on tour in France. This work is a challenging fin de siècle setting of Apollinaire's iconic poem about lost love at the Mirabeau bridge in Paris and quite unlike other versions.

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse

L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

Guillaume Appolinaire (1880 - 1918)
from Les Alcools, 1912

Elles s'appelaient Marie

8/27/2015

Voicing: Soprano Solo, SATB and piano; Narrator; Dancers; Mixed media
Text and Melodies by: France Levasseur-Ouimet (text in French)
Arranged by: Allan Bevan
Published by: L'Alliance des Chorales du Quebec, distributed by Editions Gam, Montreal

Enjoy a lovely montage of a recent performance of France Levasseur-Ouimet's Canadian masterpiece, Elles s'appelaient Marie. This is an extended work (duration 50') taking as its subject the trials and tribulations of the work's heroine Marie, (soprano solo) a Quebec-born woman who homesteads in the early years of the province of Alberta. The performance comes from Gatineau, QC and features their live sound track of the work's final movement Je te Salue, Marie. Elles s'appelaient Marie was commissioned by Chorale Saint-Jean, Dr. Laurier Fagnan, director, in 2006 and first performed by them in Edmonton the following year. The work was featured at Choralies 2012 (the world-wide francophone choral congress). The YouTube excerpt below is taken from an April, 2015 performance in the L'Eglise St.-Francois-de-Sales, Gatineau, QC. The Choeur classique de l'Ouataouais, Tiphanie Legrand, conductor, and the Chorale de l'Ecole secondaire publique De La Salle, Robert Filion, conductor, combine forces in this production. The complete work is available from Editions Gam in Montreal, as are four of the individual movements which are available separately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktl4oMc6cr8

Profitez d'une belle montage d'une performance récente du chef-d'œuvre canadienne de France Levasseur-Ouimet, Elles s'appelaient Marie. Ceci est un travail prolongé sur les épreuves et les tribulations de Marie, (soprano solo) une femme d'origine québécoise qui Propriétés dans les premières années de la province de l'Alberta. Elles s'appelaient a été commandé par la Chorale Saint-Jean, Laurier Fagnan, directeur, en 2006.

Eine alte Krippe - Zachtjes Sliep Maria's Kind

8/15/2015

Did you know that one of my most popular Christmas works has been translated into both Dutch and German? If you are a European choir director the rights to my Gentle Mary Laid Her Child are held by the European Choral Club for the Benelux region. The Dutch translation is by Titia Lindeboom and the German translation is provided by Birgitt Paulusma.
The European Choral Club has SATB and TTBB versions of Gentle Mary Laid Her Child in English, Dutch (Zachtles Sliep Maria's Kind), and German (Eine Alte Krippe).

See and listen to Gentle Mary Laid Her Child at The European Choral Club.

Wist u dat een van mijn meest populaire kerst werken is vertaald in het Nederlands en het Duits? Als u een Europees koor directeur van de rechten op mijn Gentle Mary Laid Her Child worden gehouden door de Europese Choral Club voor de regio Benelux. De Nederlandse vertaling is door Titia Lindeboom en de Duitse vertaling wordt geleverd door Birgitt Paulusma.
De Europese Choral Club heeft SATB en TTBB versies van Gentle Mary Laid Her Child in het Nederlands, Engels (Zachtles Sliep Maria's Kind) en Duits (Eine Alte Krippe).

Zie en luister

Wussten Sie, dass eine meiner beliebtesten Weihnachts Arbeiten hat sowohl in Niederländisch und Deutsch übersetzt worden? Wenn Sie ein europäischer Chorleiter sind die Rechte an meiner Gentle Mary Laid Her Child werden von der Europäischen Chorraum für die Region Benelux statt. Der holländische Übersetzung ist von Titia Lindeboom und die deutsche Übersetzung wird von Birgitt Paulusma vorgesehen.
Die Europäische Choral Club hat SATB und TTBB Versionen von Gentle Mary Laid Her Child in Englisch, Niederländisch (Zachtles Sliep Marias Art) und Deutsch (Eine Alte Krippe).

Sehen und hören

More information and additional recordings of Gentle Mary Laid Her Child in its SATB, SSAA, SAB, and TTBB English versions may be found in the Listen section of this web-site.

The Lost Lagoon

8/11/2015

The Lost Lagoon, a recent work on a poem by Canadian poet E. Pauline Johnson has been published by classica Music Publishers. The Lost Lagoon is scored for SATB and piano and was the winner of the 2011 Vancouver 125 Composition Competition sponsored by Jubilate Vocal Ensemble. Pauline Johnson, the famous Mohawk poet lived the last four years of her life in Vancouver, and she was often seen paddling her canoe in the Lost Lagoon which was located within the confines of Stanley Park. Although the lagoon is now a freshwater lake, Johnson was buried in the park, and there is a monument to her memory there.

It is dusk on the Lost Lagoon,
And we two dreaming the dusk away,
Beneath the drift of a twilight grey,
Beneath the drowse of an ending day,
And the curve of a golden moon.

It is dark in the Lost Lagoon,
And gone are the depths of haunting blue,
The grouping gulls, and the old canoe,
The singing firs, and the dusk and--you,
And gone is the golden moon.

O! lure of the Lost Lagoon,--
I dream to-night that my paddle blurs
The purple shade where the seaweed stirs,
I hear the call of the singing firs
In the hush of the golden moon.

E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913)

View the score at classica Music Publishers

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

8/7/2015

A just-released (Summer 2015) SATB a cappella composition on a famous text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Commissioned by the Jublilate Vocal Ensemble of Vancouver, and first performed by the choir on March 8, 2015 under the direction of Dr. Larry Nickel.
The sumptuous painting on the cover of the new publication is "The Lady of Shalott", painted by John William Waterhouse in 1888, and inspired by Tennyson's ballad of the same name.

NOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

From The Princess: A Medley (1847)

See the score and listen to a recording at Cypress Choral Music, or at SheetMusicPlus

Shakespeare's 400th

7/27/2015

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest

My No Mortal Business was a co-commission of Chorus Niagara, The Richard Eaton Singers, and the Vancouver Bach Choir. It was first performed by Geraint Wyn-Davies, actor, Johanne Ansell, soprano, Chorus Niagara, the Toronto Orpheus Choir, and the Talisker Players, conducted by Robert Cooper in St. Catharines, ON, and Toronto in 2012.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

The Richard Eaton Singers, Timothy Anderson, actor, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor, The Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, AB, Sunday, March 13, 2016 (western Canadian premiere; see poster below for further details)

Orpheus Choir of Toronto, Geraint Wyn-Davies, actor; Maeve Palmer, soprano; Robert Cooper, C.M., conductor, Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, Toronto, Saturday, April 23, 2016 (this performance will take place on the day Shakespeare died in 1616)

No Mortal Business (title from a line in The Tempest) is a large-scale choral/orchestral work with text by Shakespeare, and although it wasn't originally intended as an anniversary work it strikes me as something that would be very suitable for any 2016 concert program wishing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of the bard.

No Mortal Business features an important part for an actor who is known in the score as "the prologue". In Shakespeare's time the prologue gave short speeches providing necessary historical background or plot advancement. The part of "Chorus" in Shakespeare's Henry V is the bard's best example, and I admit to being influenced by Derek Jacobi's wonderful portrayal in Kenneth Branagh's film of this play. The prologue in No Mortal Business speaks only the words of the bard but his lines are extracted from many of his plays and sonnets and reassembled in a way that provides a possible vision of the actor himself in his final years. What emerged in this lengthy process of research and (respectful) re-creation was a vision of a mighty talent who was plagued by self-doubt, frustrated by the stress of life as a struggling artist and consumed by the thought of his impending death. In No Mortal Business, Shakespeare's words become haunting 'soliloquies' appearing between the choral numbers and also over and above the music that I have composed. The role of the prologue in No Mortal Business is challenging, as it requires an actor who is capable of portraying a wide range of emotion, is familiar with the Elizabethan stage, and has enough musical background to stay in sync with chorus and orchestra.

The part for the soprano soloist is dramatic in nature too - she portrays the Angel of Death who sings alternatively comforting and disquieting words that resonate deeply in the soul of the prologue and stir reaction from the actor, the chorus, and the chamber orchestra.

No Mortal Business is in five 'Acts' and is thirty-five minutes of intense, non-stop musico-dramatic action. It contains substantial choruses intended for a large mixed-voice ensemble, most of whose text comes from Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest (e.g. new settings of Full Fathom Five, The Cloud-Capp'd Towers, and Where the Bee Sucks) but there is also snippets of ancient plainchant (In Paradisum, Requiem Aeternum) and a powerful new Kyrie Eleison. The latter liturgical passages reflect the fact that Shakespeare was born into a Catholic family and that he was a noted recusant (one who refused to attend services of the protestant Church of England), as well as an author well-versed in the questions of faith.

Full score, vocal score, and parts are available thru the Canadian Music Centre. Contact the composer for further details.

Richard Eaton Singers To Perform No Mortal Business

Canadian Chamber Choir CD

5/3/2015

The Canadian Chamber Choir, Julia Davids conductor, is requesting your assistance in raising funds for their new CD, a compilation of sacred choral works by a number of Canadian composers. I'm delighted to report that they are planning to include one of my works for unaccompanied mixed voices, Hide Thy Face (published by classica.ca) on a text from Psalm 51. I heard them perform a number of the pieces that will be on the recording at a concert in Calgary about four years ago. A wonderful group with a great concept that includes singers from around the country.

More information about this project can be found at: canadianchamberchoir.ca