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
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Full Fathom Five

4/25/2022

 
Voicing: TTBB and piano and SATB and piano
Text: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) (The Tempest)
Published by: Cypress Choral Music (2020)
Version for SATB and piano: Cypress Choral Music (2020)
Notes: Composed in 2004 for Da Camera Singers, Edmonton, Canada. The text is one of Ariel's songs from Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest. Be sure to listen to the gorgeous live recording of the work sung by the men of the Ontario Youth Choir on the right. In 2019 Full Fathom Five was named the winning piece in the Chor Leoni C4 Competition.  Have a listen to their fabulous recording. Thanks to Erich Lichte, Ken Cormier (piano) and the men of the chorus for such a fine interpretation.  Full Fathom Five is also included in my  No Mortal Business, a large-scale work for choir and chamber orchestra on the life of Shakespeare (read more in my blog "Shakespeare's 400th"). See the Canadian Music Centre for further details on this work, and look for "No Mortal Business" in the blog section of this site to listen to the final movement in an amazing live performance by the Toronto Orpheus Choir, Robert Cooper, conductor.

Full fathom 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.


Performed by: The Ontario Youth Choir, conducted by Dr. Marta McCarthy, Leslee Heys, piano; Grace Church on-the-Hill, Toronto; August 24, 2014.


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Peace

4/22/2022

 
Voicing: SATB a cappella
Text: Henry Vaughan (1622 - 95)
Unpublished: please contact the composer
Notes:
The last number in Three Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan, Peace was composed in 2001. Peace was premiered by the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor and recorded on My Soul There Is a Country which was released that same year. Another recording was made by I Coristi, Dr. Debra Cairns, conductor on Songs of the Soul in 2008. Between these two choirs alone, Peace has been sung at an ACDA Convention (Los Angeles, 2005 view, at right) and at Festivals in England and Wales.

My Soul there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
All skilfull in the wars,
There, above noise and danger,
Sweet peace sits crown'd with smiles,
And one born in a Manger,
Commands the Beauteous files,
He is thy gracious friend,
And (O! my soul awake!)
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake,
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of peace,
The Rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease;
Leave then thy foolish ranges;
For none can thee secure,
But one, who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

from Silex Scintillans, 1650
Performed by: I Coristi Chamber Choir, Dr. Debra Cairns, conductor, from Songs of the Soul, 2008

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Three Motets on Texts of Henry Vaughan

4/21/2022

 
Voicing: SATB unaccompanied
Text: Henry Vaughan (1662-1695)
Contact composer
Notes: The Three Motets are a cappella settings of three short poems (see below) by Welsh physician, translator, and poet, Henry Vaughan. Vaughan's poetry is sacred in nature and heavily influenced by the Anglican poet, George Herbert. Vaughan was studying law at Oxford when the English Civil War broke out. A royalist, Vaughan returned to the much less tumultuous Welsh countryside where he lived out his quiet and contemplative life.
The Motets may be performed separately if desired (see entries on the individual works elsewhere on this site) or together as follows: The Eclipse, The Revival, and Peace.
The composer views this poetry as representative of 1) The Passion 2) Easter 3) Heaven.
The Motets were composed between 1999 and 2001 and were grouped together by the composer upon completion of Peace in early 2001. 
All of the performances that follow are from My Soul, There Is a Country, by the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor. This recording was made shortly after the first performance of the work by this award-winning Canadian university choir. This CD is available thru the CMC. See also the separate entries on each of the three pieces below.
The Eclipse
Whither, O whither did’st thou fly 
When I did grieve thine holy Eye?
When thou did’st mourn to see me lost, 
And all thy Care and Councels crost.
O do not grieve where e’er thou art!
Thy grief is an undoing smart. 
Which doth not only pain, but break
My heart, and makes me blush to speak. 
Thy anger I could kiss, and will:
But (O!) thy grief, thy grief doth kill.


The Revival
Unfold, unfold! take in his light,
Who makes thy Cares more short than night.
The joys, which with his Day-star rise,
He deals to all, but drowsy Eyes:
And what the men of this world miss,
Some drops and dews of future bliss.
Hark! how his winds have chang’d their note,
And with warm whispers call thee out.
The frosts are past, the storms are gone:
And backward life at last comes on.
The lofty groves in express Joyes
Reply unto the Turtles voice,
And here in dust and dirt, O here
The Lilies of his love appear!
Peace
My Soul, there is a Country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a wingèd sentry
All skilfull in the wars,
There above noise, and danger
Sweet peace sits crown'd with smiles,
And one born in a Manger
Commands the Beauteous files,
He is thy gracious friend,
And (O my soul awake!)
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake,
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of peace,
The Rose that cannot whither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease;
Leave then thy foolish ranges;
For none can thee secure,
But one, who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy Cure.
Neal W. Woodruff provided this substantial review of the Three Motets in the May, 2007 issue of The Choral Journal:

"Award-winning Canadian composer Allan Bevan has set a marvelous triptych of texts by the seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan. Texts of the first two motets are chosen from Vaughan's late publication, Thalia Redivivam, 1678 (revival of the muse of comic poetry), while the final text is culled from his most well-known collection entitled Silex Scintillans, 1650 (Flashing Flint). Specifically, the title of the 1650 work represents the "stony heart against which Divine flint strikes and produces fire." The fervor reflected in the poetry was stirred into flame during the various outbreaks of religious dissent and war in England."

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The Eclipse

4/17/2022

 
Voicing: SATB unaccompanied
Text: Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
Unpublished: please contact the composer


Notes: Awarded first prize in the 2000 Austin (TX) Pro Chorus Choral Composition Competition. This work was composed in 2000 and is the first of three pieces I composed on the poetry of Welsh metaphysical poet, Henry Vaughan.  It was composed in 2000 and revised in 2020. Some choirs that have performed this work include the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Da Capo Chamber Choir, Musikay, I Coristi, and the U. Alberta Madrigal Singers, and, most recently, on Good Friday 2022 by Pro Coro.

Whither, O whither did’st thou fly
When I did grieve thine holy Eye?
When thou did’st mourn to see me lost,
And all thy Care and Councels crost.

O do not grieve where e’er thou art!
Thy grief is an undoing smart.

Which doth not only pain, but break
My heart, and makes me blush to speak.

Thy anger I could kiss, and will:
But (O!) thy grief, thy grief doth kill.  
                                                                                               
Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)

From Thalia Rediviva, 1678


Performed by: The University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor; recorded on, My Soul There is a Country. (2001)
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Performed by: I Coristi Chamber Choir, Dr. Debra Cairns, conductor; recorded on, Songs of the Soul, 2008
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Danny Boy, arr.

4/17/2022

 
Voicing: SSA and piano; SATB and piano; TTBB and piano
Melody: Traditional Irish melody ("Londonderry Air")
Text: Frederick Weatherly (1848-1929)
Published by: Rhythmic Trident Music Publishing
(RTBF-006) (2013)
Retail: The Leading Note ; Long and McQuade;
Notes: The original version of this arrangement (SATB) was composed in 1998 for the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor. The SATB setting is also published by Rhythmic Trident (RTBF-005) as is a new version for men's voices (RTBF-007). You may read a 2015 Choral Journal review of the SSA version of the work (under "Read more" below)

O Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side.
The summer's gone and all the roses falling,
Its you, its you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back, when summers in the meadow,
Or when the valleys hushed and white with snow,
It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow,
O Danny boy, O Danny boy, I love you so.

But when ye come and all the flowers are dying,
And I am dead as dead I well may be.
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying.
And kneel and say an 'Ave' there for me.

And I shall hear though soft you tread above me,
For all my grave will warmer sweeter be.
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
Performed by: Concerto Della Donna, Iwan Edwards, conductor, Pamela Reimer, piano

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Frederick Weatherly
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LuAnn Holden, Artistic Director of the Chattanooga Girls Choir and music education faculty member at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee provided the following review printed in the November 2015 edition of The Choral Journal.

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Fairest Lord Jesus, arr.

4/17/2022

 
Voicing: SATB, organ, brass and percussion audience (opt.)
Published by: Canadian Music Centre (2006)
Notes: This arrangement was commissioned by CBC Radio Two for their "Easter Sunrise Celebration", 2001. Although the program is now cancelled, in its time it was a magnificent celebration of Easter music that would emanate each year from a different city in Canada and be broadcast live throughout the country. The first performance of Fairest Lord Jesus took place at Edmonton City Hall, conducted by Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff,  with a 4:30am choral call so the concert could be broadcast live to Newfoundland and other earlier time zones. Fairest Lord Jesus was simulcast on CBC Radio 2 Choral Concert and CBC television that Easter morning April 15, 2001. The arrangement is intended for a massed choir with optional congregation or audience participation. The original scoring was for brass octet, while a smaller version was arranged for the 2007 Easter Sunrise Celebration in Toronto (both versions can be heard to the right). Score and parts for both versions are available thru the CMC (use the link above). The text is the public domain English translation of "Schön­ster Herr Je­su" done by Joseph Seiss in 1873. The melody is the famous Silesian folk song known as "Crusader's Hymn".

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heaven can boast.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forever more be Thine.


Performed by: Massed Chorus, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor; Jeremy Spurgeon, organ; brass octet and percussion.
Live Recording, Edmonton City Hall, April 15, 2001.
Performed by: Choirs of King's University College, Edmonton, Dr. Melanie Turgeon, conductor; Joachim Segger, organ; brass quintet and percussion. Recorded on, The Voice of My Prayer (2011).
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My Mother

4/6/2022

 
Voicing: SATB a cappella
Text: Francis Ledwidge (1887 - 1917)
Published by: Canadian Music Centre 
Notes: This challenging work for unaccompanied mixed voices was commissioned by Dr. Debra Cairns and I Coristi Chamber Choir, Edmonton, as one of the choir's tenth anniversary projects in 2003 . It was premiered in Edmonton, performed at Podium 2004 in Winnipeg, and released on Echoes: Ten Years of Song by the Alberta classical recordings label, Arktos.
People sometimes think (based on the title) that I wrote the text and composed a piece about my own mother, but although there may be a few similarities, the woman described in the poem by "The Blackbird Poet" Francis Ledwidge, is much more about his mother, or a romanticized, imaginary mother-figure, than mine!
Ledwidge was an Irish poet who was killed in W.W. I while serving in the British army, just days before he would have turned thirty.

God made my mother on an April day,
From sorrow and the mist along the sea,
Lost birds' and wanderers' song and ocean spray,
And the moon loved her wandering jealously.

Beside the ocean's din she combed her hair,
Singing the nocturne of the passing ships,
Before her earthly lover found her there
And kissed away the music from her lips.

She came unto the hills and saw the change
That brings the swallow and the geese in turns.
But there was not a grief that she deemed strange,
For there is that in her which always mourns.

Kind heart she has for all on hill or wave
Whose hopes grew wings like ants to fly away.
I bless the God Who such a mother gave
This poor bird-hearted singer of a day.
Performed by: I Coristi Chamber Choir, Dr. Debra Cairns, conductor

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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
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Singers To Come

3/30/2022

 
Voicing: SATB and piano
Text: Alice Meynell (1847-1922)
Published by: Canadian Music Centre
Available thru: J. W. Pepper.com
Notes: This piece was commissioned by the Alberta Centennial Choir, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor for special performances celebrating Alberta's centennial year, 2005. The Massed Choir consisted of over 200 singers from around the province, and they presented performances in Alberta's three largest cities, Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge.

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.

from A Poet's Fancies IX

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Alice Meynell
Performed by: Alberta Centennial Choir, Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, conductor

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Then Farewell, World

3/24/2022

 
Voicing: SATB a cappella; or SATB Double Chorus
Text: 1) Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586) 2) Thomas Campion (1567 -1620)
Published by: Canadian Music Centre
Notes:
Then, Farewell World was composed on a commission from Pro Coro Canada in 2003, and sung by the choir in Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa the following year. The work sets two texts by English Renaissance poets on the subjects of love and faith, departure, and heaven. This is a challenging piece, a big sing, requiring an outstanding choir capable of maintaining intonation over the eleven or twelve minutes it takes to sing the work. Other choirs besides Pro Coro that have sung the work include Calgary's Spiritus Chamber Choir (please enjoy their outstanding recording to the right) and the Vancouver Chamber Choir who rehearsed the work in my presence (to my great delight) at one of their wonderful Interplay offerings for choral composers. In 2006, I rescored it for double chorus, so performance in either form is possible. The two works that comprise Then Farewell, World are inter-connected as material from the first number (Leave Me, O Love) returns at the end of the second (Never Weather-Beaten Saile). However, it is still possible to sing the two numbers separately, as they can stand on their own. The title is taken from the penultimate line in Philip Sidney's sonnet.
Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust,
And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust; Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.
Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be; Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light, That doth both shine and give us sight to see.
O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out to death, And think how evil becometh him to slide,
Who seeketh heaven, and comes of heavenly breath.

Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see;
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me. 
Sir Philip Sidney from Certaine Sonnets, 1582

Never weather-beaten saile more willing bent to shore,
Never tyred pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied spright now longs to flye, out of my troubled breast:
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.  
E’er-blooming are the joys of Heaven’s high Paradice,
Cold age deafes not there our ears, nor vapour dims our eyes:
Glory there the sun outshines, whose beams the blessed only see:
O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my spright to thee.              
Thomas Campion


Performed by: Spiritus Chamber Choir, Terry Edwards, conductor (2006).
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Sir Philip Sidney
Picture
Thomas Campion

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Parlez-Moi, arr.

2/22/2022

 
Voicing: SSA and piano; SATB and piano
Text and Melody: France Levasseur-Ouimet
Level: Moderately Easy
Published by: Cypress Choral Music  CP 1217;
Retail: ​The Leading Note ; 
Sheet Music Plus; The Leading Note;  Northwest Musical Services; Panamusica;
 Notes: This is easily my most popular choral arrangement! A pleasant melody with a lovely chorus and a thoughtful French text by Dr. Levasseur-Ouimet made it a pleasure to set. There are two arrangements: SSA and SATB. Allan Bevan's arrangement of France Levasseur-Ouimet's "Parlez-Moi", was commissioned by Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc in 2010. This famous children's choir has sung the work in France, Spain, and South Korea. The SATB version of the piece (2013) is also published by Cypress Choral Music (CP 1265). (Perhaps there is a TTBB choir out there who would like me to arrange this for them? Send an e-mail!)
France Levasseur-Ouimet is a gifted francophone songwriter who lives in Edmonton. Allan Bevan and Dr. Levasseur-Ouimet have collaborated on many occasions over the past decade. The Canadian Chamber Choir, Julia Davids conductor, featured this work as part of their 2019 tours and recording, "Seasons of Life and Landscape". 

Notes: l'arrangement de Allan Bevan de France Levasseur-Ouimet "Parlez-Moi", a été commandé par
Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc en 2010. Ce chœur d'enfants célèbres a chanté le travail en France, en Espagne et en Corée du Sud. Il ya aussi une version pour choeur SATB (CP 1265). La version SATB a été achevée en 2013.
France Levasseur-Ouimet est un auteur-compositeur francophone de talent qui vit à Edmonton.


"Je cherche un peu partout
Dans l’espoir de trouver
Quelqu’un qui connaît bien la mer et son halein’ salée
Qui pourrait bien me dire

Pour quoi j’ai dans la peau
Le bruit des vagues sur la plage
Le chant liquide et pur de l’eau.

Parlez-moi de la mer
Racontez moi son histoire
Dites-moi, parlez-moi
Pour que je sois marin pour que je sois marin Parlez-moi de la mer."


excerpt from Parlez-Moi by France Levasseur-Ouimet arr. Allan Bevan
© Cypress Choral Music 2012


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Performed by: Chorale Saint-Jean, Catherine Kubash, conductor (SATB)
Performed by: Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc, Nicolas Porte, conductor (SSA)
Performed by: ihana Youth Choir, Lisa Ward, conductor
Marie Stultz of Spectrum Music, in Lexington, MA wrote this about Parlez-Moi in the Winter 2012-13 Choral Room:
Parlez-moi, by France Lavasseur-Ouimet, arr. Allan Bevan, French text, Cypress, CP 1217, SSA & piano. Difficulty rating 3-4. $2.25
Text Source: France Levasseur-Ouimet
Period and Nationality: 21st C. French Canadian
Style: Part-Song
Special Music Characteristics: This charming melody and text by Lavasseur-Ouimet resembles a folk song. Bevan has arranged the melody in two and three parts over a florid piano accompaniment in the key of D Major. A good introduction to French diction, the subtle dynamics will develop the choir's artistry. The piece concludes on a dramatic double forte on a unison d2 that will ring through the room.
Read the complete text and view the score at Cypress Choral Music
Enjoy a performance of Parlez-Moi by Concerto Della Donna at CBC Music

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Hide Thy Face

2/1/2022

 
Voicing: SATB a cappella
Text: Psalm 51: 9-10
Unpublished: please contact composer
Notes: Completed in 2008, this anthem was first performed by the Concordia University College Concert Choir, Dr. John Hooper, conductor.  Hide Thy Face sets two verses from Psalm 51, (Miserere Mei Deus) using the English translation from the King James’ Bible. It is set in a straight-forward, three-part form with the words of verse ten ("Create in me a clean heart, O God") providing the text for the contrasting middle section.  

Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
Performed by: King's University College Choir, Edmonton, Dr. Melanie Turgeon, conductor, from The Voice of My Prayer (2011)

Performed by: The Canadian Chamber Choir, Dr. Julia Davids, conductor, from Sacred Reflections of Canada: A Canadian Mass (2015)


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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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The Souls of the Righteous

2/10/2015

 
1) Voicing: TTBB a cappella
Text: Wisdom 3: 1-3
Published by: Cypress Choral Music
Notes: This work was composed in 1999 and first performed by Chor Leoni, Vancouver. It is the second of three settings that I have done of this particular text. The recording to the right was submitted by the choir as an entry for the 2002 CBC Choral Competition. It is conducted by the legendary Diane Loomer.  The text is a famous passage from the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom.
Performed by: Chor Leoni, Diane Loomer, C.M. conductor.
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
There shall no torment touch them.
In the sight of the unwise, they seemed to die:
But they
are in peace.

Wisdom 3: 1, 2a, 3b
see the complete score at classica Music Publishers

2) Voicing: SATB a cappella
Published by: Cypress Choral Music, Vancouver CP 1075
Retail: J. W. Pepper; Foxes Music

Notes: This is an SATB scoring of the original TTBB version above. Text is identical but the ending is different. You may view this score at Cypress Choral Music.

Listen to Ensemble Phoebus of Montreal sing The Souls of the Righteous at CBC Music. This beautiful recording is from the 2015 CBC Choral Competition.
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    For additional information, please view Allan Bevan's Composer Showcase on the Canadian Music Centre website.
    Composer Showcase
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