As a follow on to the recent post regarding polyphony for the developing choir...
What do you got in English?
Of particular help: -Not "If Ye Love Me" (we already know that one) -Preferably, English that still makes sense -Three part (SAB, or adaptable to such) is super helpful.
Also- Easy. Please. My choir consists of 6 pensioners and my wife.
With a little bit of work, most 3-part motets can be adapated to Soprano-Alto-Baritone. You have had to adjust the pitch.
If you can get 4-parts, George Ousley wrote a piece called "From the Rising of the Sun" which is not terribly difficult.
You might also look at Franz Xaver Witt's "Ad Te Levavi", I know that it is Latin, but is it also quite easy, largely homophonic rather that polyphonic, and very lovely.
I will look at the Witt, but I largely know where to find as many easy Latin pieces as I'm likely able to get away with. We have a few people who complain a little too much when the choir sings in Latin, and since it's an Episcopal parish, I don't have any bearing to say that we should sing in Latin any more than we do. I manage 3-4 times a year, and more than that is probably pushing it.
It only came up yesterday in my own choir, filled with many beginners and we managed to get the gist of it within 10 minutes. We'll polish it up for next week's mass.
We're doing it slightly differently. Where it says "Alto Solo" we've got all the ladies singing the first time around, and all the men singing the second time around. Appeals to the whole "where two are more are gathered in my name" by having upper and lower voices singing different sections and then all in harmony.
My own setting of the John Brownlie communion hymn text Let thy Blood in mercy poured has been used in a number of churches, both Catholic and Anglican. It is composed as a four stanza hymn with descant on the final stanza, but it can (and is) sung in many different ways, often as a communion motet.
Resurrecting. Latin was expressly forbidden in my Parish recently and now I'm scrambling to keep up the progress the choir has made with polyphony. I'm particularly interested in Lenten texts. However, I am mainly interested in two-part SA pieces or pieces that could be sung SA without the TB parts, with or without organ accompaniment. I can usually count on 1-2 sopranos, 1 alto, and two men that usually sing the soprano part (or melody) in their octave.
Giffen's setting that he mentioned in 2012 is good, and I have used it. As a last resort, you could sing the parts you can sing and let the organ accompaniment cover for the parts without voices. Think of it as a serpent filling in missing parts.
Here's an edition I did of Batten's "Lord, We Beseech Thee," which we sang with my children's choir handling the soprano line (so it's definitely learnable!). You could probably get away with using it outside of Advent.
And there are other short SATB Tallis pieces. If "If ye love me" suits, visit CPDL for similar items.
Do you have the 'Oxford Easy Anthem Book'? It is a trove of good to passable repertory for the liturgical year. A good place to start with a choir such as yours. (It's really quite odd [droll, even] that your people balk at Latin: most Episcopal choirs think that singing the Latin repertory is a Very Good Thing, even a responsibility as well as a pleasure, not to mention a feather in their hat).
Then, there is Oxford's 'A Sixteenth Century Anthem Book'. It contains some hard stuff, but also has some easy stuff. This book is a staple for foundational polyphony-homophony.
Then, there are Lassus' wonderful dozen motets for two equal voices. Though they are Latin (wonderful texts from Wisdom and old breviaries), you might find them useful.
Then, what Episcopal choir wouldn't be pleased to sing Titcomb? A number of very easy anthems in English; plus a few unison anthems (by Titcomb or Thiman [I don't remember which off hand]) such as settings of Benedictus es Domine (in English).
Don't be ashamed to sing hymns as anthems. A number of hymns are very well suited to do duty as anthems. You can even do organ interludes modulating to different keys for some stanzas, or contrast unison and parts by stanza or by line, etc. Too, many hymns will work in canon. Then, in the back of The Hymnal 1982 there are a number of canons that you could make anthems of. You can make anthems of psalms by singing Gregorian tones and Anglican chant in alternation; or singing a metrical psalm hymn in alternation with verses sung to Gregorian tones in alternation. Or, any (tasteful!) combination of any or all the above.
Another source of easy anthems is the genre of 'hymn anthems', many of which are to be found in the oeuvres of British composers, some Americans, and especially Healey Willan, who churned out quite a few of these to satiate his publisher's thirst for easy and recognisable repertory. The 'Oxford Easy Anthem Book' has a number of these, notably for Easter, etc., and many others can be found in the catalogues of H.W. Gray (cum Belwin Mills, cum ?), Oxford, Novello, Concordia, et al. These anthems, all based on hymn tunes, consist typically of unison sections, very easy harmony sections, modified canon, sections for S or A or T or B, etc. Organ accompaniments vary from very easy to moderate.
Canadash asked about 'Mine eyes for beauty pine' - what is expressed in this poem by Robert Bridges is the soul's craving for the splendours of heaven and the unmitigated love of God, as well as for the company of those in whose eyes is mirrored the fire of that love.
I started to use 'Short Anthems for Small Choirs ' by Kevin Mayhew. Quite good. 50 pieces, including Lead me, Hide not.. and just a few simple Lain ones such as Ave Maria, Ave verum, Adoramus te.
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