Some easy choral pieces by contemporary Polish composers
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 8,995
    Today, I put together a PDF booklet of some fairly easy four-part choral pieces that were sung when I attended the Dominicans' summer music workshop in Krakow a few years back. They were written by present-day church composers in Poland, with texts in Latin or in English adaptations from the Polish originals.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0g7n0vob144uza5ia9xx/EMW-sample.pdf?rlkey=xpw4lw9savaldfqmf0r5dcahx&st=gijnlova&dl=0

    Most of them are structured with a refrain and verses; a few are Taize-like ostinato refrains.

    Please post a comment if you try any of these with your choirs.

    Here's one of the pieces performed at World Youth Day:

    https://youtu.be/FOO4Eay14ck

    Thanked by 4Roborgelmeister CHGiffen tandrews wspinnen
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,000
    Chonak, this appears to be a watered down version (or perhaps the antecedent) to the offerings of the Polish Dominican Liturgical Foundation.
    There are some real gems in this collection, most notably the Anima Christi.
    https://dlc.foundation/product/soul-of-christ/

    We sang it recently: https://youtu.be/6Q4_P0-fCCM?si=IJTkEhBQfX4LKw01
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 8,995
    Thanks: it's good to see that the DLF has put these scores up for download.

    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • CGM
    Posts: 735
    Notes:

    — While the institute is referred to as a foundation in its Polish name, because the word "foundation" in English often connotes enormous financial endowments (which the Polish Dominicans assuredly do not have), they call it instead the Dominican Liturgical Center (or DLC) in English.

    — I've been working with these wonderful friars for over 20 years, and most of the pieces included in Chonak's file (from that 2022 workshop) were items that I engraved and/or assisted in adapting into English, including pp. 2-3, 5, 6-7, 9a, 10-11, 13, 14-15, and 16-17. Feel free to PM me for clean copies of those pieces, or others.

    — We provided all the liturgical music for the USCCB Convocation for Catholic Leaders in Orlando in 2017, and we prepared a folio containing eleven of these works which we gave to conference attendees. PM me for a PDF copy, if you're interested.

    — We recorded a couple of albums of Polish OP music in Seattle in 2020, and the DLC posted the audio and the scores online, both available for free. See Soul of Christ (which Serviam mentions above) containing music for Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time, and Eva | Ave with scores for Advent, Marian feast days, and more for Ordinary Time.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen ServiamScores
  • Magdalene
    Posts: 24
    I have been using their music for the past year after they sent me the links CGM referenced. My choir and I love them because of their beauty and ease of learning. I have reached out to request music from other albums as well and they generously provided them. I cannot say enough good things about them!
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