Sing like nobody is cutting your head off
For the ninth day of Christmas, here’s Nova Nova Ave Fit ex Eva by Williametta Spencer. This one also works for the Annunciation, being based on Luke 1:26-38.
[Listen to Nova Nova on Youtube]
There appears to be sheet music available at J W Pepper.
Ring out the old, ring in the new, here’s something energetic for the New Year by Rachel Devore Fogarty:
[Listen to ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells’ on Soundcloud]
Sheet music available for purchase from MusicSpoke
If you’re the resolution-making (and keeping!) type, and involved in church music, are you resolving to include more music by women in your worship? To encourage, support or champion women in church music in some other way? I’d love to know the details.
For the 7th day of Christmas, here’s Gentle Mary by Margaret Sandresky:
I hope the audio embed worked; if not, there’s a recording and sheet music at Paraclete Press Sacred Music.
For the sixth day of Christmas, here’s Those Things Three by Alison Willis, sung by the Dorking Choral Society conducted by Hilary Campbell:
[Listen to Those Things Three on Soundcloud]
Sheet music is available from Alison Willis.
For the fifth day of Christmas, here’s Lullaby for the Christ Child by Ruth Watson Henderson:
[Listen to Lullaby for the Christ Child on YouTube]
The music is available from Good Music Publishing for unison voices; the Canadian Music Centre says the work is for “children’s choir (unison with descant), or for soprano solo, with piano or organ accompaniment, and optional adult choir SATB.”
This week’s readings are:
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 148
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:15-21
It’s very much still Christmas, so any of the music from the Christmas page or from the twelve days of Christmas tags would work well.
It’s also New Year’s Eve; if you wanted to focus on that a bit, “Ring Out, Wild Bells” by Stephanie Martin might well be appropriate. It’s available from Leading Note, but I haven’t been able to find a recording. The words are taken from the poem by Tennyson, but I’m not sure if it’s the complete poem or just part of it.
For the fourth day of Christmas, here’s a lovely haunting setting by Diane Loomer of Yuletide Fires, an anonymous text. It’s available from Cypress Choral Music in TTBB or SATB; this recording is of the Chor Leoni men’s choir singing it:
For the third day of Christmas, ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Sheena Phillips:
[Listen to ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Sheena Phillips on Soundcloud]
The sheet music is available for perusal and purchase from Santa Barbara Music Publishing.
For the second day of Christmas, also St Stephen’s Day, here’s a setting of ‘Good Day, Sir Christemas’ by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The translation is by A Clerk of Oxford.
Happy Christmas!
Here’s a lovely setting by Alison Willis of the mediaeval carol ‘I Sing of a Maiden’, recorded by the Music Makers of London, directed by Hilary Campbell:
Sheet music is available from Ali, contact her via her website for more information.