Sing On, Sweet Thrush

Robert Burns (1759-96)

Choral level of difficulty: 2 (5 greatest)

This lovely accompanied part-song was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation to celebrate Prince Charles’s 70th birthday in 2018. It is scored for choir, piano and the Prince’s instrument, the ‘cello. The choral parts are strictly in four voices with no divisi and this is a setting (text by Robert Burns) which will sit easily and gratefully in many choirs’ programmes. It celebrates nature, another of Prince Charles’s passions, of course, and the whole piece is alive with bubbling rhythm, lovely uneven 5/8 bars, and lots of joyful outbursts from the choir. There is almost nothing to scare a competent choir and only a few bars near the end where the sopranos and altos have to negotiate some phrases of rising semiquavers (16ths). This is a truly celebratory piece which will fit many programming themes.

Repertoire Note by Paul Spicer