Composition Spotlight: Let the Rain Come Forth

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig

 

Welcome back to the Composition Spotlight.   Each week we look at a piece or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet.  This is where we store a treasure trove of works written by ChoralNet composers.  These are pieces your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.

 

Let Rain Come Forth by Joy Decoursey-Porter SATB divisi and piano (click here for PDF  and audio)

 

Level: High School or higher

Uses: Spring Concert

Program Themes: Weather, Spring, Thunderstorms, Rain, Nature

This Piece Would Program Well With: O Sifuni Mungu arr. Emerson from JWPepper and Sheet Music Plus.

 

Thunderstorms are nature’s symphonies with a lot of percussion.  I love choral works about rain that include some sound effects.  Joy Decoursey-Porter has a brand new work out called Let Rain Come Forth.  This piece would make an excellent introduction to other works about rain or nature.  I would program it as a companion piece to O Sifuni Mungu and go directly from one to the next without pause for applause.  I would also borrow the thunder effect from Perpetuum Jazzile’s cover of Africa by Toto.  The choir jumps on the risers to produce the thunder. Then have your choir stomp their feet for the rumble. All of this adds to the visual effect for the audience.  Add some audience participation by having everyone crumple a page or two of recycled concert programs and roll them in their hands.   Let Rain Come Forth sounds like rain to me.  Give it a try! 

 

Let Rain Come Forth is available from Joy Decoursey-Porter joyfulporter(at)hotmail.com