Rounds for Squares

12 performance rounds for incurable fuddy-duddies
by  Brian Kogler

Are you a square? Can you easily retrieve a gas bill from 1979? Do you pine for the return of spats? Do you chew each mouthful forty times while letting the bottle “breathe”? And when you watch TV, do you recoil from all murders except those committed on the village green? If so, these rounds are for you: they will loosen you up in all the right places. Squares aside, they may of course be sung by mixed groups of all ages. Should the range of any round seem daunting, turn to the final page for an explanation of “partnered voices”.

Over 100 of Brian Kogler’s rounds are now accessible on YouTube. Scores are available for free on request. Please contact: bkogler [at] bigpond [dot] com

SKU: BKR-006 Categories: , , , , Instrumentation:
Voicing: Equal Voices, SSAA
Instrumentation: A Cappella
Language: English, Latin
Sacred or Secular: Secular
Difficulty: Intermediate, Advanced
Descriptive Tags: Fun, Humorous, Light, Rounds, Silly
Season or Event: General

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for SATB chorus a cappella
SDE-001
SATB
1'40"
Latin
Sanford Dole’s Ave Maria is a harmonized setting of the Gregorian chant antiphon. The soprano part is a metrical version of the Gregorian chant melody. The other parts create a harmonic world that is uniquely Dole’s; what his choirs refer to as the “Dolian mode.”
for Mixed choir, unaccompanied
RBT-003
3'50"
The author of the text of this composition, Norbert Čapek (1870-1942) was the founder of the Unitarian movement in what is now the Czech Republic. Originally destined for the Catholic priesthood, he converted to the Baptist faith; however, his views gradually became more liberal, and he was forced to emigrate to the United States. After […]
for mixed voices and string quartet
PGN-012
SATB
7'30"
English
This short cantata on spring evokes expressive texts by John Milton, anonymous, and E.E. Cummings.
SABar choir with piano
SPN-008
SAB
3'30"
English
The text for How Can I Keep from Singing was written by members of the Derventio Choir of Allestree, Derbyshire, England, and Steven Paxton’s setting was composed for the competition celebrating that choir’s 30th anniversary. Moderate tempo a cappella sections alternate with fast, rhythmically driving sections mixing 6/8 and 5/8 meters. The piano accompaniment is […]
for double choir
CME-003
SATB
⋅
SATB+SATB
3'
English
A 17th-century riddle poem, “I Saw a Peacock With a Fiery Tail” at first seems fantastical: A peacock with a fiery tail! I saw a comet drop down hail! Full of evocative text painting, this choral setting reveals the sense of the poem by dividing each line between the two choirs and then reordering the […]
for SSATBB choir a cappella
SDE-005
SATB
⋅
SSATBB
7'
English
This setting of Charles Baudelaire’s iconic poem captures the “luxury” and “voluptuousness” of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s radiant translation. The six-part texture allows for thick, evocative chords in Dole’s jazz-influenced harmonic world. Slowly evolving chord progressions paint a picture of a person truly in love with another, asking that they go on a long journey […]
for a cappella SATB choir
SDE-003
SATB
3'15"
Latin
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 […]
for SATB chorus and piano
EHE-012
SATB
1'
English
Emily Dickinson’s short and quippy poem, “To make a prairie” has a great depth of meaning despite its brevity, in its portrayal of the power of imagination. This setting captures the broad sweep of the prairie landscape in its bright opening chords, and the dreamy state of imagnining in a shimmering but intensifying middle section, […]
for SATB chorus and organ
ROC-009
SA
⋅
SATB
4'40"
English
This carol originated in the city of Wexford in the southeastern Republic of Ireland. It was transcribed from a local singer by the noted Irish author, composer, musicologist, and historian W. H. Grattan Flood (1859–1928). It eventually made its way into the Oxford Book of Carols. It has a modal (Mixolydian) feel, constantly shifting between […]
for SATB a cappella
MRS-006
SATB
3'00"
English
I was composer-in-residence with International Orange Chorale in San Francisco in 2020, when the world shut down and all of life, it seemed, moved online to this video conferencing thingy called Zoom. Like everyone else, I was trying to figure out how this platform worked, how life was going to go from now on, and […]
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