Richard Rice's Simple Choral Gradual would be something to look at for a group this size. Also, there is much to utilize on the Small Choirs UK website.

St. James Press, England has a series, "Canons and Crochets," where you buy one book filled with about 15-20 little two part (any voicing) gem motets, fully indiced and not difficult.

There's a list of two part Christmas music here... seven to choose from.

http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/ChoralWiki:Multi-Category_Search

Since you are probably going to have accompaniment at this point, almost any SATB anthem can be sung, often very effectively, as a unison or two part piece. There's no shame in doing this ;<) and choirs that do this often find people coming up saying, "<br />I sang bass on that in college, could I sing in the choir?"

Rebuilding a choir after the exit of a toxic member is like walking in a meadow of gently swaying grass. Peace reigns once again!

There are a ton of free anthems at www.cpdl.org as CHGiffen mentions (he's a major mover and shaker there) and you may actually sort them to be for two parts and sacred, which saves a lot of time. If you are new here, welcome, and also check out www.thecatholicchoirbook.com, which is free for downloads and my project.

CPDL.org is one of the sources we used to create the Anthology and part of the inspiration to make it available free ourselves.

I agree with you marajoy! I saw two pieces that I absolutely loved on St. James but I don't want to spend the 140 bucks for just two pieces. There is one on the St. James Site I'm thinking of for Christ the King called Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending (Hemsley hymn tune). The text speaks so much of Christ the King and Palm Sunday. Even though it's under the advent section, I don't understand that part! HAHA. Is it okay to use that during Christ the King?? Thoughts??

I often find excellent choral material perusing the SATB hymn arrangements in The English Hymnal.
http://archive.org/details/theenglishhymnal00milfuoft

Sorry Joy and MM23, didn't know they'd changed their pricing policies. Perhaps individual copies of "C and C's" can be found on line via Amazon and such.

Thanks for the shout-out, Ben! The link you posted is somewhat garbled, as it omits the composer name in parenthesis. I'll used this opportunity to fill the picture in a bit about my 2- and 3-part Ave Maria settings.

The work was first composed as a 2-part Soprano-Baritone setting with an interpolated third Alto part "descant" added as the composition progressed. So, by the time the work was finished, it was complete both as a 2-part SBar and a 3-part SABar setting. Sometime later, it occurred to me that with the 2-part setting, a better result might be obtained by transposing the Baritone part up and octave, so that a 2-part SA (really SMz) setting resulted, entirely suitable for female voices. In fact, this latter 2-part SA setting is, I think, a better fit than the 2-part SBar setting. Anyway, here are the relevant direct links to PDF scores and a couple of the MP3 sound files:

2-part SA setting PDF (the preferred 2-part setting). Sound file MP3

3-part SABar setting PDF (the original work). Sound file MP3

2-part SBar setting PDF (the derived 2-part setting from the SABar setting obtained by omitting the Alto part).

And here are the links to the relevant score pages at CPDL:

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Ave_Maria_%C3%A0_3_(Charles_H._Giffen): Ave Maria à 3 (Charles H. Giffen)

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Ave_Maria_%C3%A0_2_(Charles_H._Giffen): Ave Maria à 2 (Charles H. Giffen)


Note about linking to CDPL materials

Also, when linking to scores at CPDL, people should use the prefix www.CPDL... rather than www1.CPDL..., www2.CPDL.org..., or www3.CPDL.org... . The "www" refers to the main (contributor) ChoralWiki site for CPDL, while the others are mirror (visitor) sites suitable for browsing and/or downloading, but they are only updated once a day and hence may be up to 24 hours out of date. Serious users are encouraged to Register and Login at the main (www) site and avail themselves of the opportunity to make editorial and score contributions, as well as to communicate via the talk (discussion) pages of works, contributors, and composers. At any rate, the preferred way of linking to anything at CPDL is through the principal (www) URL, rather than the visitor (www1, www2, and www3) URLs, any of which might or might not be unavailable during mirroring and back-up.

I love this Josquin and so does my schola. I created an edition in D in which the tenors switch back and forth between assisting the altos and singing with the basses, to which anyone is welcome if interested.

I believe that Jeffrey Tucker put this early-20th-century Italian motet collection into digitized form:

http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/secunda.pdf

Since I enjoy this collection so much, I'm going to repeat what I said about it on an earlier Musica Sacra forum post. Namely: "The motet I happen to like best is Ecce Panis Angelorum, by G.B. Polleri, which starts on page 161; I can vouch for the fact that a competent SSA choir - whether unaccompanied or with very discreet organ backing - can make this piece sound like a million dollars."

Jeffrey Reynolds's MSF nickname is @jefe (it's jefe in real life), so you can send him a message here (which also gets emailed directly to him), simply by clicking on the link, that goes to his profile here.

Spot on, EG. If one has much trust for Richard Shepherd's work, and not a lot of time to audition the entire St. James landscape, it's unlikely that you'll just make a risky economic investment in "buying the whole cow."
Somewhat similar to say, wanting a hymnal full of Randall DeBruyn but having to pay for viele Seite aus Carey Landry! Argggh.

Here's the Josquin Ave verum corpus transposed down a perfect fourth, for ATB.

Edit: Thanks to Andrew Malton for spotting a typo that has now been corrected.

2nd Edit: One more typo has been caught.

Any suggestions for a nice motet for Thanksgiving - SA or SSA? Just found out my Tenor is going away for the holiday - as are most of the rest of the choir. My original plan is not going to work. Ideas? Thanks in advance.

I couldn't figure out from the conversation over in the Newcomers section whether bumping old threads was in or out... so I'm resurrecting this thread, hopefully. If anyone else has any compositions to contribute for 2 female voices I would be glad. 3 voices is not doable at present. Thank you CHGiffen for your wonderful Ave Maria!

Is organ included?
If it is, then there are a ton of things in Latin for 2 equal voices and organ. The French made some good contributions (Faure is nice but more difficult than most), the Italians around Perosi, and the Flemish (we're doing a Jef Tinel Regina Coeli for Easter). Much of this music was written after 1903 and pays some honor to Caecilian ideals. Much of it was published before 1923 and is available on IMSLP. If I know specifically what sort of music you need, I could make some specific suggestions. Click here to get an idea of what's out there.

Thank you so much for your responses. Yes, we have done the melody + Alto but I was looking for something more in the motet style like what Heath has shamelessly plugged (Thank you! I will be purchasing your book!) We are quite skilled in Gregorian Chant but sometimes you need to add a little bit of sweetness for the untrained ear which is why I am trying to expand our little repertoire. I have singers but not any confident enough to hold their part. Yes, Latin is definately in but no organist unfortunately. Jeffrey: Latin or English 2 voices anything, simpler the better. Thank you!

Kathryn Rose (a professional hornist, organist & choirmistress, serpent player, as well as composer) has been writing some very nice music and making it available freely through CPDL. Her Crux Fidelis is indeed a gem.

I guess I should identify myself, I'm Kathryn Rose who wrote Crux Fidelis. The handle is an anagram.