Voicing: Mixed Voices

Composer Joe Twist writes,

On The Night Train sets the scene of a train dashing through the Australian bush at dusk, as described by Henry Lawson’s graceful poetry. The emptiness of the Australian outback is represented by long, sustained pitches in the opening and closing sections of the work, above which a simple, folk-like melody is sung. This melody is also used throughout a rhythmic contrasting section where the singers create the impression of a moving train with ‘scat-like’ nonsense syllables and whispered vocal effects.

Part Needle, Part Thread was composed in 2020 for the Adelaide Chamber Singers, though due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was unable to be performed at the World Choir Games in Belgium as intended. It was later video recorded by the Adelaide Chamber Choir for online release.

The text by Ann Nadge explores the delicate connection between love and time, describing that connection as an entity, a process and a protection against emotional darkness. Carl Crossin, effortlessly weaves the voices between each other, painting the metaphor of needle and thread before time seemingly stops in the dramatic B section. Listen below.

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.

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).

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carl Crossin writes that the brief given to him in the commission of this work was that the song be “uplifting and life affirming” – and that it certainly is. A wonderful piece for secondary choir.

“Rise” is also available for SSAA voicing.

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

Also available in SSAA voicing

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’.

NOW AVAILABLE

Written after Perth’s first lockdown due to Covid-19, this simple yet lush setting of Coleridge’s poetry expresses a first glimpse of hope and return to normality. Both an expressive longing and a gentle dreaming to be with someone far away resonates through the harmony and melodic gestures.

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.

This piece is currently in preparation. For more information please contact admin@mortonmusic.com

This recording of The Earth’s Prayer is sung by Lumens and directed by Kathryn Morton. Despite beautiful, moving harmonies throughout, it is the text that shines through in this piece.

Text by Sally Clarke:

Our Mother, whose Paradise is our Haven, 

Hallowed be thy top soil. 

Thy splendour, thy splendour, thy splendour be replenished, 

thy nurture be reciprocated on Land as it is in Sea/Sky/Mountain Range. 

Give us this day our daily mindfulness, 

forgive us our fossil fuel obsession as we forgive those who manipulate against us. 

Lead us back into balance and deliver us from separation, 

for thine is the Wonder of Biodiversity, the renewable power and the shared, sustainable glory. 

Now and forever. Amen! 

This poignant piece, written for the Seymour College Chamber Singers, is based on the poem by the same name by Robert Frost. The text tells of a traveller who comes across a fork in the road and decides to take the road less travelled – a moving reflection on life’s decisions. Composer Carl Crossin’s decision to include violin adds a further element of emotion to an already very stirring piece. Highly recommended, particularly for youth choirs.

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.

NOW AVAILABLE

These three motets are settings of hymn texts by the influential theologian and writer, Thomas Aquinas. O Salutaris Hostia (O Saving Victim), Panis Angelicus (Bread Of Angels), and Tantum Ergo (Hence So Great A Sacrament) each pertain to the Eucharist – a central aspect of Christianity. The chant melodies of these texts are layered with other material (both derived from the tune, and freely written) in a similar fashion between each piece to create linked, but unique modern textures. Each uses predominately the same pitches, but with different use of modality originating from each chant theme producing different colours in the sound world.

This set is a part of the Sacre Australis series.

Listen below for recordings of Three Eucharistic Motets by Joshua Adams

O Salutaris Hostia:

Panis Angelicus:

Tantum Ergo:

This “Victoria Triptych” was written in 2011, the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish polyphonist, Thomas Luis de Victoria. For unaccompanied SATB choir, and with divided parts, these wonderful Latin motets remind us that the great motet tradition is still vibrant and flourishing. The individual titles, recorded by the choir of St James King Street, Sydney, one of three commissioning choirs, are:

Versa est in Luctum

Lamentation of Jeremiah

Hombres, Victoria, Victoria!

“Tunggare” means “voice” or “to sing” in an Indigenous Australian dialect. This is a wonderful opening or closing to a concert. There is much repetition and very easy tenor and bass parts, so it is perfect for a high school choir (and other choirs as well!). It may also be used as a choral piece for audience participation.

Listen to Tunggare here!

These two songs 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.

“Where charity and love are, God is there.”

Composer Joseph Twist writes…

A commemoration of Jesus Christ for Holy Thursday, for me, the Ubi Caritas has a few significant dimensions; the warmth of Christ’s love, the adoration and mystery of the holy spirit, and the idea of an ‘inclusive, universal’ celebration. Accordingly, my Ubi Caritas reflects this through contrasts in harmonic language, at times chromatic or mysterious, at other times diatonic or pentatonic, reflecting Christ’s love, as well as the influence of modal harmony from Eastern Europe and Africa. Similarly, contrasts in rhythm and texture are incorporated. The calm, sparse music which bookends the work is countered with rhythmic, syncopated music in a kind of ritualistic exultation.

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

Number one of Twist’s “Victoria Triptych”. My harp is tuned for lamentation, and my flute to the voice of those who weep. Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing (trans. Miguel Iglesias)

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

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 fresh take on an Aussie classic.

A wonderfully uplifting piece with solos throughout, We Are The Future is highly recommended for youth choir. With text adapted from year 8, Brighton Secondary Student, Paris Maddern’s poem “The Future”, this joyous piece for SATB or SSA choir carries a strong, youthful voice and sings of their hope for the future, and their role in it.

“And I cry at the glowing blaze of disaster in this world

Yearning to reshape it, let goodness be unfurled

Perhaps I am not good enough

Perhaps my strength exceeds me,

The world will see me.”

“We Are The Future” is also available in SSA voicing.

A wonderful piece which welcomes “the glorious blessing of light” asking us to “pour out our darkness into the glorious forgiving light”. Would suit a good college or church choir. It could also be used as an Epiphany anthem with a difference, since Epiphany appears in the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

The recording is track number 08, from The Australian Voices’ CD, “The Listening Land”. Conducted by Graeme Morton.

Winchester Service – Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

These canticles, suited for mixed voices and organ, premiered on May 6 2023 in the Winchester Cathedral. Joseph Twist comments, “It fascinates me that the words of the Magnificat were considered by some to be so radical that they were banned in some parts of the world. Believed to be the words of Mary, phrases like “filled the hungry,” “exalted the humble and meek” and “the rich sent empty away” resonate with me, and I believe they resonate with many people today just as they have for centuries, despite the bans. There is also a great sense of storytelling to the text, as these phrases take us from one idea to the next, ultimately offering a sense of peace and contentment, then reaffirmed by the uplifting words of the Nunc Dimittis. I’ve endeavoured to convey this story with music that rises and falls, contrasted by more static choral sonorities and underpinned by a gentle perpetuum mobile organ accompaniment. At the conclusion of each canticle, “Amen” takes us to a place that is vast, peaceful, and celestial. It is my hope that these canticles may offer a uniquely Australian response to a text that has echoed throughout churches and cathedrals for centuries.

Winchester Cathedral Choir Recording of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis – Conducted by Andrew Lumsden and Organist Claudi Grinnell

Magnificat:

Nunc Dimittis:

This piece for choir, piano and flute paints a cloudless winter night – the piano and flute adding a crisp clarity to the atmosphere. A lovely piece for secondary choir, and a great addition to your concert programme.

“Winter Stars” is also available in SSAA voicing.