Full Catalogue

A humorous look at the monkey and turtle who go looking for bananas and get shot! Suitable for children of all ages! Only available within the collection of Island Songs.

The SATB version is for unaccompanied choir. The treble version  has a piano accompaniment.

(The musical example is for mixed voices)

An easy but effective strophic song emphasizing community. “Come my brother, come my friend, wait, wait in the deep”.

The SATB version is for unaccompanied choir. The treble version  has a piano accompaniment.

(The musical example is for mixed voices)

A beautiful song of travel and love. This is a lovely arrangement of a Torres Strait Island song. Only available within the collection of Island Songs.

The SATB version is for unaccompanied choir. The treble version  has a piano accompaniment.

(The musical example is for mixed voices)

Add to your Christmas Carolling with this light-hearted arrangement.

One of the easiest and most immediately appealing from Stephen Leek’s In Construction series. It is suitable for singers of all ages and uses indigenous Australian words that are spoken in rhythm at various pitch levels. “Kumbargung” means “night” and other evocative words include “ungi gungi” (grasshopper) and “goolay yali” (pelican). A delight for all ages!

SATB divisi choir a cappella or accompanied (by optional Tubular bell & String Orchestra). Originally part of a 30 minutes work Childers Shining which helped bring healing to a community after a fire tragedy caused the loss of 15 lives, this work was written to bring healing, transformation and upliftment.

The second of Joseph Twist’s “Victoria Triptych” this piece quotes from Victoria’s Lamentation, adding new modern elements clothed in a rich, plaintive harmonic language. Suitable for concert and liturgical use, and making musical references to Victoria’s Lamentations throughout.

Available in the set of Three Motets after Victoria – not available singly.

An arrangement of a folk song about sailors and the sea.

Combines the text of Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning with two verses of Australian bush poet “Banjo” Paterson’s Sunrise on the Coast. Excellent Christmas piece. This work was commissioned in 1996 by The Harvard University Choir.

Though written in an advanced idiom, this work was commissioned and first performed by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale, a high school choir. The composer writes “musically, this work has been much influenced by Renaissance choral music…my aim above all things was to draw upon a tradition of writing that is solemn, richly spiritual but ultimately life-affirming”.

The sound file was recorded by the Sydney Chamber Choir, conducted by the composer, and from a CD released through ABC Classics. Lux aeterna is recorded on the Sydney Chamber Choir CD Songs for the Shadowland.

David Koering has get this traditional hymn in a somewhat “colonial” style, reflecting the origins of the beautiful melody.

The second of the Ancient Cries set, this introspective slow work in 5/8 allows a choir to showcase a beautiful tone. The title means “red earth” and evokes the landscape of Australia’s geographical center.

Stephen Leek’s famous work from Songs of Passage. “Ngana” means “shark” and the piece strikingly captures the driving energies, rhythms and vivid colors of the island seascape found around the northeastern tip of Australia. Ngana was commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St. Peters Chorale.

The treble version of Stephen Leek’s famous work from Songs of Passage. “Ngana” means “shark” and the piece strikingly captures the driving energies, rhythms and vivid colors of the island seascape found around the north-eastern tip of Australia.

The recording is by Young Voices of Melbourne, directed by Mark O’Leary.

Pronounced “ungahyulyul” meaning “hawk dreaming”. The text reflects the thoughts of the sheep farmer herding his sheep, ever aware of the hawk circling overhead. The second of Stephen Leek’s Songs of Passage, this is a highly evocative and beautiful composition using easy but effective modern compositional techniques. Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale.

Suitable for college or church choir. A strophic setting that builds to an exciting climax. Appropriate for Advent or Christmas use.

This setting captures the sense of longing that can be found in the text.

An Australian interpretation of a traditional English folksong. Appropriate for various groups but particularly suitable for women’s voices. SSAA unaccompanied.

The demonstration recording is:
Once I Had A Sweetheart, trad. arranged Mark Puddy: Perth Modern School (Western Australia) Schola Cantori conducted by Celia Christmass, 2006

Australia’s most iconic choral work to date, and featured on the Hollywood film Boychoir. This version is for SA divisi choir a cappella. MM2004 uses the treble voice version of the score for choir and an accompaniment for celli only.

Commissioned (in the SATB version) for Graeme Morton’s high school choir, the work can be performed by choirs of modest training, and yet has made it all the way to Chanticleer, and other professional groups, such is its broad appeal.

Accompaniment available for Full Orchestra or Concert Band, String Orchestra or Cello Ensemble.

ORDER NOW from http://musical-resources.com/morton-choral-music-from-australia/

or in Australia from Hal Leonard Australia (wholesale) VIA YOUR PREFERRED SUPPLIER.

Recording by The American Boychoir · Fernando Malvar-Ruiz · Sarah Hopkins

Australia’s most iconic choral work to date, and featured on the Hollywood film Boychoir. This version is for SATB divisi choir a cappella. MM2003 is a treble version and MM2004 uses the treble voice version of the score for choir and an accompaniment for celli only.

The work distinctively features Harmonic Overtone Singing. A rehearsal guide to Past Life Melodies, also available through Morton Music, shows you how to teach this technique to your choir.

Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s high school choir, the work can be performed by choirs of modest training, and yet has made it all the way to Chanticleer, and other professional groups, such is its broad appeal.

Accompaniment available for Full Orchestra or Concert Band, String Orchestra or Cello Ensemble.

Geoffrey Cox’s setting alternates newly-composed unison accompanied plainsong with a cappella material from the English Renaissance.  It can be used liturgically for the responsorial psalm or as an anthem.

A highly imaginative choral piece for SSAA choir and piano. In it a young child who lives in the dry central Australian outback and has never seen rain dreams of what it would like to be in a thunderstorm. The work eventually becomes a sort of rain dance with chanting of “Wandjina”, an Australian Aboriginal rain spirit.

The first of the Ancient Cries set; Rainbird begins with a dramatic and evocative piano introduction and includes some Australian aboriginal words as well as aleatoric sounds.

This seven page compendium of information and resources helpful to choir directors, choristers and music students. Much of the material in this booklet is different from that in the CD. There is biographical information, a discussion on the process of composition and suggestions for rehearsal. It includes information on Sarah’s compositional process, Rehearsal suggestions, frequently given feedback to Choirs plus bio info.

A  short song by Sarah Hopkins in a vibrant, joyful style. This is a combined score that can be used by either treble or mixed voices. The work divides into seven parts but many parts use sustained single tones so a choir of reasonable ability can perform the work. SA or SATB a cappella (or accompanied by any treble ensemble).

“Riawanna” is an Australian native word for “circles” and the piece is a do-it-yourself round with thousands of possibilities. It includes mixed meters. The final instruction in the accompanying notes says it all: “have fun”.

The sound file is by Eltham East Primary School Choir’s CD Sea Shapes, conducted by Anne Williams.

This seventy minute CD includes spoken commentary from Sarah Hopkins as she rehearses Past Life Melodies with St Peters Chorale and we also hear inspiring performances of the full piece. This is a marvelous resource which has the composer’s stamp of authority!

ORDER NOW from http://musical-resources.com/morton-choral-music-from-australia/

or in Australia from Hal Leonard Australia (wholesale) VIA YOUR PREFERRED SUPPLIER.

A four-part arrangement for treble voices of the traditional American folk song that concludes with the most magical and ethereal sounds!

Sing Out! was commissioned for Australian Society of Music Education Conference 2005 as the opening massed work. It is a short, fun, rhythmic piece to be sung ‘with joy’.

The composer arranged the text using both his own verses in English and traditional Australian words. The latter have a sonorous quality and also match the theme of the song. The result is a work with a distinct Australian flavour which paints a visual image of the Australian outback. SSAA unaccompanied.

A robust arrangement which includes two versions of an Australian sea shanty. The composer also sanctions a cappella performances.

A unison mass in English. Suitable for congregational use, or for unison choir.

Another in the Songs of Passage set, “tabulam” means “my home”. This song captures the energy and life of music-making from the north of Australia where part-singing is joyous, spontaneous and often improvised. The writing is lush, rich and repetitive. Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale.

A lyrical and charming Australian folksong set for SATB choir and piano. This is a simple arrangement that brings out the grace and charm of the melody. The score gives and explanation of all the Australian slang in the song, arising as it does from the Australian colonial period and the vast sheep-raising properties that were characteristic of this history.

This song makes a great contrast with Bullocky-O, also arranged by Graeme Morton.

A humorous song for young singers with references to unusually named and strange sounding Australian towns such as Burrumbeet, Beetaloo and Gundagai. The performance is from the National Youth Choir of Australia directed by Noel Ancell.

This is the ultimate in a flexible edition! Unison, SAA, TBB and SATB choirs can sing the music from this copy. Based on the old Dutch carol, McKinley’s accompaniment fairly bowls along in a quasi-Baroque style. An excellent addition to the sacred Easter repertoire for any choir.

This wonderful piece portrays three phases of the day: Sunrise, emerging in the stillness of the dawn, Birds, reflecting the vitality of the noonday, and the vibrant bird calls in the “Australian) bush, and Sunset, where the conclusion to the set of songs is a slow chordal diminuendo as the sun sets. Each movement can be performed separately.

Three simple carols for women’s or children’s choir using the medieval texts Terly Terlow, When Crist Was Born of Mary Free and I Sing of a Maiden.

This one page piece is a hauntingly beautiful setting of the medieval text. For the most part in two parts, it divides into three at the end. Highly recommended!