SATB unaccompanied
Continue reading “Jingle Bells”Category: SATB
The National Anthems Project
The Star-Spangled Banner and O Canada
SSAA/TTBB, SSA
A simple but important opportunity for choirs to sing for audiences that often would not otherwise hear you is for sporting and other public gatherings where National Anthems are sung at the beginning of the event.
Here are arrangements of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and arrangements of “O Canada” in both English and French that you are welcome to freely use. O Canada has been updated to reflect the word change from June, 2016. The words “in all thy sons command” have been changed to “in all of us command.”
Email Me (don’t leave a reply below, I need an email message) with the specifics of your needs and I will be happy to send the scores. They are all designed to particularly be useful for school and community choral programs. They are straight ahead versions, easy to learn, uncomplicated but rich. Assemblies, sporting events of many sorts, whenever the singing of National Anthems is called for, get your singers out there in front of the public! There are now also Three Part Treble Voices versions of both anthems designed for children’s voices without the low notes the 4-part version requires.
Quartets, octets, small groups or large, there are many ways to use these arrangements. The upper voices can sing it by themselves, the lower voices can sing it by themselves, and all parts can sing together, creating an easy 8 part arrangement. Additional ways to sing it are suggested in the score.
This arrangement is registered with ASCAP, so please list my name as arranger in any programs. If you make a video and post it on line, please also list my name as arranger and my web site as the source for the score.
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
Full Score (Upper and/or Lower)
The-Star-Spangled-BannerSSA Score
The-Star-Spangled-Banner.3-part-Treble-ChorusO CANADA
Full Score (Upper and/or Lower)
O_Canada.full_.updatedSSA Score
O_Canada.SSA_.updatedAtomic Soldiers
SATB, flute, violin, viola, cello
“Atomic Soldiers” sets the words of soldiers who were subjected to tests of nuclear weapon explosions in battleground situations, excerpted with the kind permission of the New York Times and Morgan Knibbe, filmmaker, from the documentary “The Atomic Soldiers” released in 2019. These soldiers were prevented from speaking about their experiences until the 1990’s, and could have been charged with treason for doing so before that. Musically, it revisits the opening descending figure of the Prologue, and this time it takes the form of a chaconne. The soldiers’ parts, rather than being given to an individual voice, are taken by sections of the chorus. In their interviews, the soldiers tell the stories one at a time, in a linear fashion, but when sung by the chorus, the lines can be re-constructed and layered upon each other as well.
Premiere performance, recorded inside the B Reactor.
Minimum Purchase of 10 Copies Required
Sadiq
SATB and piano, from “Here, Bullet“
The choral version of this piece from the song cycle for tenor, chorus, and piano. Heart-pounding, intense. “It is a condition of wisdom in the archer to be patient because when the arrow leaves the bow, it returns no more.” Sa’di
See the song cycle page for more information.
Minimum Purchase of 10 Copies Required
Text
Sadiq
It should make you shake and sweat,
nightmare you, strand you in a desert
of irrevocable desolation, the consequences
seared into the vein, no matter what adrenaline
feeds the muscle its courage, no matter
what god shines down on you, no matter
what crackling pain and anger
you carry in your fists, my friend,
it should break your heart to kill.
–Brian Turner
We Are Rising Up
A song to rally a group to social justice action, customizable to your specific need.
From the Justice Choir Songbook
this morning
SATB with piano
Continue reading “this morning”Nuclear Dreams: an Oral History of the Hanford Site
Mezzo and Baritone soloists, SATB Chorus, chamber orchestra
Nuclear Dreams: an Oral History of the Hanford Site is a concert-length work exploring the stories and night dreams of those who lived or worked on the land that became the site of the B Reactor, the first full production plutonium reactor in history, part of the Manhattan Project. Plutonium from the B Reactor was used for the Trinity test explosion and the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
The piece is featured starting on page 44 of the linked article in the April 2020 Choral Journal “Singing in the Cathedral of the Nuclear Age” by Molly Holleran.
Here are some videos and the program from the premiere by the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers, Justin Raffa, conductor. More information can also be found on the Facebook event for the premiere.
Below is a video made from the audio recording on opening night of the piece “Atomic Soldiers.” Atomic Soldiers is now available to be purchased separately
Below is performance video of “Spoonful of Tank Waste,” recorded inside the reactor itself with a live audience.
Below is a performance video of “I Didn’t Know They Work Here,” also recorded inside the reactor with audience.
Below is a performance video of “Spring of Paradise/J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Gita (Reprise)”
Here is the program from the premiere which contains complete program notes, the libretto, and performer information.
mcmprogram19SepFor performance information, Email: reg@reginaldunterseher.com