Voicing: Mixed Voices

This carol for Christmas manages to combine several opposing concepts. It mentions the traditional winter cold of Christmas and the summer heat which is part of the Australian Christmas experience. It also combines “scat” syllables in a style which is definitely Classical. This piece can be sung by any church or college ensemble which sings the standard repertoire of Christmas. Highly recommended!

Combines the traditional music and text of the Australian folk song Andy’s Gone With Cattle with the American folk song He’s Gone Away. Would suit a high school choir.

Another Australian work with that characteristic “Orlovich sound” – fresh, buoyant, vital and energized, but without weight and drama. It is always clean on the palate. The sample recording is by the National Youth Choir of Australia.

A gem of an arrangement from Canadian Larry Nickel that your choir and congregation/audience will absolutely love.

The recording is by the West Coast Mennonite choir conducted by Tony Funk.

From the Torres Strait Islands north of Australia’s Cape York comes a beautiful song which depicts the progress of the ship Black Swana as it glides across the sea.

“Dolphins” are the subject of this highly energetic and rhythmic piece.

A rollicking piece for a good high school choir. Bullock teams were an important form of early transport for heavy loads in Australia and each one was driven by a “bullocky” – a pioneer of great character. Requires a skilled pianist.

This is the fourth title of Songs of Passage, the work which includes Ngana. “Ceduna” means “waterhole”. The music includes “boxes” of material for singers to work through as well as traditionally scored sections. Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale.

An energetic and exuberant paean on an Easter text by sixteenth century German writer, Michael Weisse. The music bowls along in changing meters from 4/4 to 7/8, 6/8 and 2/4. The choral parts are often in rhythmic unison or doubled by the keyboard, so the music is memorable and easy to sing by choirs of all abilities. There is a great balance between the asymmetry of the rhythm and the repetition of sections. The accompaniment lies “under the fingers” and is easily accessible to most church accompanists. This piece is suitable for any part of the Easter season, but particularly for Easter Sunday. Its dance like character also makes performance possible in choral programs outside religious services.This simple and vital anthem solves the problem of finding Easter music that is vibrant and energetic rather than grand and triumphant. If your choir likes John Rutter’s Easter music you may also like this piece, which makes references in the keyboard part to the well-loved hymn tune commonly sung to the same text.

This recent work by Australian composer/choral conductor Graeme Morton is an energetic and highly rhythmic setting of this familiar Catherine Winkworth translation of a sixteenth-century German hymn text.  The frequently changing meters from 4/4 to 7/8 to 6/8 add syncopation and rhythmic energy, a fitting complement to this joyful text.
The melody is memorable, and the composer has creatively, yet subtly alluded to the familiar Easter hymn tune Lyra Davidica in the instrumental introduction and interludes. Aside from some moderate rhythmic challenges, the choral writing is quite accessible, and range and tessitura are easily within the reach of the average church or high school choir. The accompaniment, while best suited to the organ can also be performed on the piano.  
This piece is suitable for the season of Easter and would make a great anthem for Easter Sunday for those churches that choose not to prepare works with brass ensemble. Highly recommended. (Review in the American Choral Director’s Association Journal)

Erratum – In bar 57 the bass part should be 2 b-naturals followed by 2 b-flats, as in bars 27, 78, 106.

Also from Songs of Passage, “coraparena” means “flat place”. The writing is easy to sing though it contains some chord clusters. Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale.

An evocative setting of Tennyson’s text. Suitable for high school, community and church choirs.

A lovely setting of this beloved text by Mary Frye, which speaks comfort as it were, beyond the grave. For unaccompanied SATB choir, Joe Twist wrote it for Graeme Morton and the National Youth Choir of Australia. Highly recommended.

Simple voice parts, yet a powerful piece with a powerful message surely more necessary now than ever before. This piece brings together many cultural influences from the “earth tribes” – Native American, African, Celtic, Aboriginal and Mongolian as well as the music of nature herself – birdcalls and flowing streams.SATB divisi a cappella or accompanied.

Demonstration Recording: Montclair State University Singers directed by Dr. Heather J. Buchanan from the 2012 ACDA Eastern Division Conference.

Hullayha (pronounced ‘Hull-ay-ha’) for SATB divisi choir a cappella or accompanied (by optional percussion, String Orchestra or Full Orchestra). The soulful opening gradually transforms into abundant joy. All the melodies are very ‘singable’ & supported by sustained drones which ‘birth’ out of the melody line.

SATB divisi accompanied (strings or other sustaining instruments) or a cappella, with Baritone soloist. 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.

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.

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.

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.

A short piece 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).

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’.

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

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.

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.

These two pieces are unusual, fresh and vivid. They resonate with ideas drawn from several religious philosophies. The composer sanctions performances within the context of Christian worship as well as any philosophic tradition which values the soul. Includes harmonic overtone singing.

The individual parts are very simple and a large and sonorous ensemble is preferred. Mixed voices a cappella.

A slow meditative work. A beautiful imaginative piece that stands among the best.

Orlovich has a keen ear for the way different texts resonate with each other. This piece uses the traditional Latin text Dulcis Jesu Memoria and Victor Carrell’s Voice of the River which draws on a series of images which address “love” as it is found in some of its myriad manifestations. Commissioned by Graeme Morton’s St Peters Chorale and suitable for a good high school or college choir. It could also be used in church situations as an anthem.

Wake Up! is a rhythmic and energetic piece that re-imagines the choir ensemble as a contemporary band. Amongst the global frenzy of contemporary culture, hip-hop and urban music has become the ‘folk music’ that resonates strongly with our current generation. This piece captures the vibrancy of those rhythms and melodies through the imitation of driving hip-hop beats and vociferous rap vocal.

A masterly and unique arrangement of Australia’s favourite song.

A gorgeous arrangement from Canadian Larry Nickel that transforms this traditional hymn into a more contemporary anthem of praise.

The recording is of the West Coast Mennonite Choir, directed by Tony Funk.