Need suggestions for festival piece- girls' choir
  • conbrio
    Posts: 41
    Help! I'm scrambling for 2 contrasting pieces for my girls' choir for the local festival. In the past, we've performed Kevin Allen motets, Heath's Wisdom of God as well as public domain works. It's a small group (15) with a strong soprano section. However, the group this year is younger, so I'm looking for SA compositions (sacred of course) rather than splitting the group into 3. Any suggestions? I have one month to teach them, but registration is next week. Yikes! I'm a volunteer church choir director so I'm afraid I am unable to pay for commission work :(
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    When I was in public school, two of my favorites for both middle and high school trebles were Casal's "Nigra sum" and "O vos omnes." There's also a Hopson arranged version of Monteverdi's "God of mercy, we implore Thee" that is deceptively easy but effective. From the JWPepper, Andrea Klouse "school" is her "Benedictus." With fifteen girls you can also split them three ways and teach them the famed William Boyce canonic "Alleluia" as well as the misattributed Byrd "Non nobis Domine" or any number of pieces from Natalie Sleeth's catalogue. I'll look in my files for anything I might have written for those voices. My latest, "In paradisum," is for trebles (2pt) but fairly demanding.
  • conbrio
    Posts: 41
    Thank you very much for these suggestions. We read through "Non nobis Domine" yesterday at your suggestion. It's lovely if not a little short. (Btw, how is it misattributed? Who wrote it? I should know these things!) How/where do I find your work? I'm very interested in using lesser known works, especially those of Catholic composers who could use the exposure. I'll be singing through the your other suggestions tomorrow with a few of the girls before making a decision. Again, I very much appreciate your help!
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/f/f1/Giffen-Ave_Maria_a_2-SA.pdf
    http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/0/09/Pergolesi_01_Stabat_mater.pdf

    I really like Rutter's SA "For the Beauty of the Earth."
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Argghhh, I actually loathe that setting. That little turn he uses on "earth" drives me up the wall.
    Conbrio, I've attached a pdf of the "In Paradisum" setting in lead sheet format. The tenor line can be played by a C instrument in treble (not tenor) register. And I have a keyboard arr. if you think you ladies can manage the parts. It's meant to emulate a Portuguese Fado style. The text and chord assignment notation is offset because of the pdf, but you can get a clue from playing the duet.
    Fada Adagio Paradiso pdf.pdf
    187K
  • barreltone
    Posts: 32
    The SA sections in my church choir did a setting of Oculus non vidit by di Lasso last year around this time:

    http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Oculus_non_vidit_(Orlando_di_Lasso)
  • conbrio
    Posts: 41
    The Oculus is lovely. Thank you all for the suggestions. I registered my group with a TBA entry to give me a little time to try these all out. Your collective help is much appreciated!
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