This traditional folk song from Haiti originated as a work song, sung by boatmen in order keep their rowing strokes in sync. The language is Haitian Creole, similar in pronunciation to French, but easier (no silent letters!). Piano accompaniment with simple optional drum. Also available in a version for SAB chorus.
A short, meditative setting of the familiar Latin hymn text, particularly suitable for use as an introit during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Scored for 4-part SATB voices, this motet is simple enough to be enjoyed by volunteer church choirs and professional/collegiate choirs alike.
Originally written for a Portuguese children’s choir, this simple a cappella setting could equally be performed by an adult women’s choir. It is mostly in two parts (SA), but there is an optional 3rd part towards the end of the piece. The first few measures may be sung as a solo. Translation: “Not unto us, […]
KONIKONECO (3-Part Mixed chorus) is a traditional call-and-response song of the Teso people, who live in eastern Uganda and in western Kenya. The lyrics, from the Ateso language combined with borrowings from other languages and dialects, roughly translates as “Let us celebrate our schools, our learning, and our empowerment.” The piano accompaniment suggests the arpeggios […]
I have loved this poem for as long as I can remember. It’s crisp, fresh imagery, it’s success in conveying, with a magnificent economy, what a poem is all about, is indeed a small miracle. I could not resist the temptation to set it for chorus. Because the poem had “gestated” for many years, I […]
JUSTITIAE DOMINI RECTAE (SSA) is based on the original Gregorian chant sung as an offertory on the Third Sunday of Lent. The Latin text is based on verses from Psalm 19 (18 in the Latin Vulgate): The laws of God are just, rejoicing the heart, sweeter than honey or the honeycomb; therefore your servant will observe them. […]
Ducks in the Garden is a short a cappella piece based on a very silly poem by Will T. Laughlin. It was premiered in June, 2012 by the San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director. Hear the work performed in the amusing video embedded above. Morning comes — The day is fine; Ducks in […]
This gorgeously heartfelt Spiritual gently asks the listener, exactly “where they were”, on the dark day when Jesus Christ was brutally crucified… and points an unflinching finger at themselves; a witness to the degrading torture and death that He endured, to expiate the world’s sins. In the entire canon of liturgical hymnody, very few pieces […]
Click here to follow the score: https://youtu.be/kSR8gohqJVY This setting of ‘Jesus, friend of little children’ was written about 30 years ago, for the baptism of our younger daughter. It was written as a soprano solo with piano accompaniment. In this current version, it may still be performed as a solo, if desired, but I have added […]
Gloria in D was premièred in December 2014 by the Bel Canto Chorus, Milwaukee in their ‘Christmas in the Basilica’ concerts. It is written for a large chorus, soprano soloist, brass ensemble, consisting of three trumpets and three trombones, timpani and organ. Richard Hynson, who conducted the première in Milwaukee, writes: “As music Director of […]
The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain form a golden age of round-singing; even the nineteenth provided some fine examples. These twelve rounds, set to texts by Shakespeare, Skelton, Swift, Dryden, Johnson, Carroll and Synge, are of varying difficulty and may require rehearsal. Keeping as they do to the style of the period, they […]
A moving setting of the classic American lullaby. Good for developing singers, but also a good choice for some lovely unison singing with more advanced ensembles. The students we arranged this for absolutely loved it. We hope your choir does too.
This piece was written while walking through the Mission District of San Francisco on a rainy evening. California has been experiencing a serious drought these past few years. I was thrilled to feel the raindrops, hence the celebratory feeling of the piece. — Mark Growden Also available in SATB and SSAA versions.
An uplifting, secular piece about our planet’s place in the universe. Its energy and relatively low difficulty level make this 3-minute piece something to consider for a high school or community group. You and I Share a single place A private universe Tiny point in space. Complex world of water, stone, and air… Necessary water, […]
A dramatic setting of the classic Russian folk song. Good for developing singers, but also a good choice for some lovely unison singing with more advanced ensembles.
This work received second place in the 2015 Ithaca College Choral Composition Competition. It sets a poem by A. E. Housman which was not published until after his death. In 1895 Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for two years for being a practicing homosexual, a crime in England at that time. Housman’s poem, while seemingly tongue-in-cheek, […]
This arrangement opens by lining out the plainsong chant over a drone. Then, in succeeding verses we hear it in organum before more complex harmonies and rhythms are added. Finally all voices sing the melody in canon before a concluding fantasia.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York has a “Poetry in Motion” series that puts posters of poetry in subway cars. I was on the 1 train on Manhattan’s West Side one day when I saw the poem “Heaven,” by Patrick Phillips. I was immediately captured by the simple beauty of Patrick’s poem, and the […]
BENEDICTION was written in February-March of 2013 for my friend Keith Haan upon his retirement as Director of Choral Activities St. Ambrose University. The “threefold blessing” seemed perfect for the occasion as we gathered to wish our colleague well on his way. I used the latin text because I wanted that elevated sound those open […]
A short call to worship for SATB choir with optional organ accompaniment. Composed for the installation of The Reverend Kenneth Crawford at the Parish of St. James the Great, Darlington, England, July, 2014.
This beloved lullaby is presented with an evocative piano accompaniment and vocal solo, bringing out a melancholy beauty that will entrance your audience.
This a cappella arrangement of the well-known Christmas carol, “Away in a Manger” is set for SATB, and also features a soprano soloist in the introduction to each verse, at the end and (optionally) in the first verse. The tune is the one most closely associated with these words in the UK, Cradle Song, by […]
Commissioned premiere performance at Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco) by the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The explosive Lang work was appropriately contrasted by the excellent, gentle and more subtle O Magnum Mysterium by Kurt Erickson. This world premiere was commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Here the “mystery” part of the thematic trinity […]
All vocal groups need short, portable items in their repertoire. A round is a melody which can unfold into harmony, the prime tool of choral directors who wish to develop in singers an ability to listen to others while holding an independent line. Rounds build cohesion among singers and provide opportunities for improving ensemble, sight-reading, […]
Short choral blessing (text from the Old Testament) written as part of 2001-2003 Composer Residency at San Francisco’s National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Premiered by resident ensemble, Schola Cantorum SF
“Are Friends Delight or Pain?” is a brief a cappella double-choir movement (SATB + SATB, ~1’45”) excerpted from Cycle of Friends, setting Emily Dickinson’s epigram with concentrated intensity. The entire piece rests on a single sustained E—a pedal point whose meaning keeps shifting as the harmony moves through changing modes and colors.
This haunting melody, is one of the most beautiful songs that the slaves composed; bone-weary and sorrow-filled… with their eyes firmly fixed on a Great Deliverer somewhere up in heaven. The itinerant preachers that visited the plantations, selected specific passages from the Bible- guaranteeing them entrance to the Promised Land- if they worked hard for […]
The birds sing an evening hymn to the trees in which they make their home in this setting of poetry by E. Pauline Johnson. Their sweet song is expressed in simple harmonies and soft lyricism.
A lyrical carol for SATB choir, this Christmas piece imagines sunrise on the first Christmas morning. “O Gift of Glorious Sunrise” was premiered in Buffalo, NY in December 2015 by the Vocalis Chamber Choir (James Burritt conducting).
Sometimes, our joys (and sorrows!) are so intense that they seem to transcend words. This idea forms the basis of Luminous Joy, whose text is only phonemes which have no meaning. Or rather, the “meaning” is left up to each individual singer, and, indeed, each individual listener. What is perhaps more concrete is the character […]
“To Soar” was premiered on June 3 and 9, 2018 in New York City by Accord Treble Choir, directed by Liz Geisewite. A live recording appears on Accord’s 2019 album Celestial & Terrestrial. I chose this poem by Walt Whitman to fit the theme of Accord’s June 2018 concert program “On Wings.” The piece squeezes […]
Apple Pie is a novel, fun, upbeat and humorous tale of two friends searching for their favorite dessert. It was the winner of the Wasatch Chorale Ars Nova Composition Competition; their call for scores asked for a piece suitable for an afternoon family concert. With a rollicking piano part moving it along, the chorus tells […]
The round in Western culture has been associated as closely with wit as it has with praise. Here are thirteen risible rounds of varying difficulty intended for a cappella performance. Admirably suited to treble voices, they may be sung by mixed groups of all ages. The lyrics are light and teasing, the music jaunty and […]
Using jazz-influenced harmonies Dole seeks to capture the mystery implied in the text. Adding the text Noe, and omitting the concluding O beata Virgo verse, the piece builds to a peppier Noel! section before returning to the opening O magnum music and leaving the audience with the quiet chords of the mystery of the scene […]
The voice of the English-speaking working classes is preserved in the rich body of song that developed in the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution and in the years surrounding the Great Depression. The songs abound with hope, despair, delight, passion and humour. This original collection of 12 folk-inspired rounds borrows lyrics from English […]
“Rain Has Fallen” is one of two settings by Madelyn Byrne of poems from James Joyce’s Chamber Music. The other setting, “Winds of May“, is also available from Swirly Music. The composer writes: Chamber Music is an early work by James Joyce. It is a collection of poems dealing with the young author’s feelings of loneliness, anticipation, […]
This TE DEUM setting, originally written in 1997, has been slightly revised in 2016. A chamber orchestration (strings, flute, oboe, trumpet, timpani, organ and optional harp) is in preparation and is expected to be available in Fall 2017.
This is the melody-only booklet to accompany the full SATB & organ/piano vocal score, available here, where you will find full details and recorded samples. For use with congregations.
Music by Mark Growden Text by Pat Schneider THE PATIENCE OF ORDINARY THINGS by Pat Schneider It is a kind of love, is it not? How the cup holds the tea, How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare, How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes Or toes. How soles of feet know Where they’re […]
This very simple Christmas song is aimed at younger children. It is in unison throughout, apart from a brief optional descant part near the end. Accompaniment is for piano, and a few simple percussion instruments may be added if desired. As the original version (GTT-025a) refers directly to Christ’s Nativity, I have also been asked […]
Forget the traditional setting of “We thee kings of Orient are”! This is a much more reflective version, for choir and orchestra, given its first performance by the Nidarosdomens Guttekor in the splendid setting of Trondheim Cathedral in December 2017. They also performed the piece on their pre-Christmas tour, using just organ for accompaniment. The […]
“Love is strong as death” This moving sentiment from the Song of Solomon is appropriate for many occasions, and the subtle counterpoint of this setting will delight singers and audience alike.
Charles Wesley’s hymn text based on the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel depicts a deeply human struggle for truth and understanding. This a cappella setting of the text grows with the building intensity of Jacob’s determination, finally breaking into the joy of revelation and reassurance in the final verse.
