ALLAN BEVAN, COMPOSER

The Time Draws Near

4/30/2022

 
Voicing: SATB and piano
Text: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Published by: Canadian Music Centre
Notes: Commissioned by Pro Coro Canada in 2001. Something different and challenging for a Christmas concert, on a moving poem 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.

Performed by: Pro Coro Canada, Jeremy Spurgeon, piano, Richard Sparks, conductor, "A Pro Coro Christmas" December 8, 2001
Picture
Tennyson, by C. F. Watts ca. 1863
1 Comment

Gentle Mary Laid Her Child

4/1/2022

 
Voicing: SSA and piano with optional soprano solo; also SATB, TTBB, SAB versions
Text: Joseph Simpson Cook (1859 - 1933)
Published by: Canadian International Music, (Lorenz Corp.)
CIM 1015 (1997);
Retail: Sheetmusicplus; Cadenza One; J.W. Pepper; Amazon.com; Northwest Musical Services; Stanton's Music; Musical Resources Online; Musicmart;
Notes: This Christmas choral work is suitable for concert and/or church use and is published in four different voicings. In addition to the SSA, there are also settings for SATB (CIM 1004), SAB (CIM 1068) and TTBB (CIM 1069). Each piece begins with a mid-range solo (or section) followed by an a cappella verse two in four parts and a final verse in unison with a descant and powerful piano accompaniment. The first of the four pieces to be composed was the SATB in about1994 with the SSA version following soon afterwards. The SAB and TTBB settings were added in 2001. All of these can be obtained in North America thru the retailers J.W. Pepper and Sheetmusicplus.com. There are printed versions and instant downloads available thru both of these web-sites.
In 2005, Gentle Mary was translated into German and Dutch.  These are available thru the European Choral Club.
Gentle Mary laid her child
Lowly in a manger;
There he lay, the undefiled,
To the world a stranger,
Such a babe in such a place,
Can he be the Saviour?
Ask the saved of all the race
Who have found his favour.

Angels sang about his birth,
Wise men sought and found him;
Heaven's star shone brightly forth,
Glory all around him.
Shepherds saw the wondrous sight,
Heard the angels singing;
All the plains were lit that night,
All the hills were ringing.

Gentle Mary laid her child
Lowly in a manger,
He is still the undefiled,
But no more a stranger.
Son of God of humble birth,
Beautiful the story;
Praise his name in all the earth,
Hail the King of Glory.

Performed by: Ariose Women's Choir, Marilyn Kerley, conductor;
Performed by: The Bach Children's Chorus Chamber Youth Choir  (Toronto) (TTBB), Linda Beaupre, conductor
Performed by: The Connecticut Choral Artists (SATB), Richard Coffey, conductor
2 Comments

Ave Maria

2/24/2022

 
Voicing: SA with two soprano soloists and piano
Published by: Cypress Choral Music , CP 1049 (2000; reprinted 2020)
Retail: The Leading Note ; Choral Sheet Music ;
Leslie Music Supply;  Sheet Music Plus (listen, view score); J. W. Pepper; Stanton's;  Panamusica;
Notes: Winner of the ACCC 1999-2000 Composition Competition and sung for the first time by Canada's National Youth Choir, at the Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton, conducted by Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and in the hour of our death. Amen.


Performed by: Ariose Women's Choir, Dr. Marilyn Kerley, conductor from Joy Shall Be Yours, 2001
Picture
 See the complete score at Cypress Choral Music
Rollin Smith's review of Ave Maria appeared in the January, 2005 issue of The American Organist:
"Allan Bevan is an extremely talented composer of ravishing sacred choral music in a traditional style. This Ave Maria won first prize in the equal voices category of the 1999-2000 Association of Canadian Choral Conductors Associated Publishers Composition Competition, and if your choir can’t sing it you should hire two good sopranos to perform it just so your congregation can hear something as beautiful as this. The two soloists rest after the first eight measures while the two-part trebles continue. Then the soloists sing to the end, and the “choir” only joins with them to provide harmony for the last three measures. The piece could be sung by a two-part choir or just two soloists. This is beyond recommended".  


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The Huron Carol, arr.

12/25/2020

 
Voicing: SATB a cappella
Melody: Une jeune pucelle (Trad. French Carol melody)
Text: St. Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649) Tr. by J. E. Middleton (1872-1960)
Published by: Lorenz CIM 1016 (1997)

Retail: The Leading Note ; Sheet Music Plus; J. W. Pepper; Music 44; Opus Two;
2) Voicing: SSAA a cappella
Contact the composer
Notes: Composed and first performed in 1994, this arrangement is a setting of three verses of the original Canadian Christmas carol, as translated by Jesse Edgar Middleton, a journalist and choral singer who lived in both Toronto and Montreal. Brebeuf's verses were in Algonquian, while Middleton made his translation from an earlier version in French. St. Jean de Brebeuf wrote the carol in 1643 as part of his mission to the Hurons.

'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the braves drew nigh,
The angel song rang loud and high:

Jesus, your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.


Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found.
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round;
But as the hunter braves drew nigh,
The angel song rang loud and high:

O children of the forest free, On sons of Manitou,
The holy child is born this day for you.
Come, kneel before the radiant boy,
Who brings you beauty, peace, and joy:


Performed by: Spiritus Chamber Choir, Dr. Timothy Shantz, conductor

Performed by: AccordEnsemble
Performed by: Heruvymy Ukrainian Female Quartet
from: And On Earth Peace

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