Boosey & Hawkes Contemporary Choral Series Recordings 2022
Boosey & Hawkes presents new recordings of the latest additions to the Contemporary Choral Series. Two new albums are available on all major streaming platforms and highlight the best of our recent Christmas and regular choral catalogue.
Featured in our Christmas 2 Album is Grace-Evangeline Mason’s A Winter Carol, which was initially written for the readers of BBC Music Magazine. The three-verse carol is suitable for any developing or intermediate choir with lighter, fast-moving passages and call-and-response patterns between the upper and lower voices.
> Listen to the album
> Watch and listen to a score video for A Winter Carol
The album also features Rhiannon Randle’s Rejoice!. The composer said of her new carol: “From the jubilant Bachian counterpoint in bars 103-113, the anthemic atmosphere of congregational carols in the refrain, to the chiming chords at bar 61 (Meno mosso) reminiscent of Christmas Day bells - Rejoice! has all the flavours of beloved, traditional Christmas carols, served with a fresh excitement.”
> Watch and listen to a score video forRejoice!
Seeing the Star, Ben Ponniah’s work for SSATB a cappella choir, is a thank you to St Mary-le-Tower Church, where the composer sang as a young chorister. In the piece, the wonderment of the Wise Men is captured, as they look up at the star on their journey to the baby Jesus. The soprano part (which includes some divisi) is initially characterised by widening intervals, to reflect the upward gaze of the Wise Men. Ponniah said: “In Seeing the Star, I explore using tone clusters to add further brightness, warmth and colour to my harmonic language – I am particularly pleased with the shimmering starlight effect in this composition”.
New Choral Music: Volume 2 (with non-Christmas music) features works by Becky McGlade, Kim André Arnesen, Karl Jenkins and Kerensa Briggs. Arnesen's Till death us do part for SATB choir and piano is highly emotive, setting a Charles Anthony Silvestri text about wedding vows and fulfilling these sooner than expected. Briggs’s Ave Regina caelorum is a reflective setting of one of the Marian antiphons (‘Hail, Queen of Heaven’). A continuous, largely homophonic choral texture underpins the work, with rich harmonies and gentle dissonance.
The Boosey & Hawkes Contemporary Choral Series combines music from well-established figures and the finest emerging composers of our time. From Kerensa Briggs, Gareth Treseder and Ed Newton-Rex, to James MacMillan, Will Todd and Karl Jenkins, this series brings together an exciting collection of new music suitable for all choirs looking to expand their horizons. Our latest Contemporary Choral publications are available from The Shop at Boosey.com as print editions and digital downloads.
> Explore Christmas titles
> Discover the complete Contemporary Choral Series
