(Each week we look at one 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 that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.)
Level: Advanced Church Choir, or College
Uses: Baptism of the Lord, Holy Family or Concert
Program Themes: The Christ Child, Creation, Clay, Angels
This Piece Would Program Well With: O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen available from JWPepper and Sheet Music Plus.
David Basden has set a beautiful poem by Hilaire Belloc that reads like a lost verse of scripture. The four year old Jesus forgoes playing with golden toys delivered by angels to make birds out of clay. He blesses them until they fly away.
Unexpected turns of harmony within a homophonic structure make this piece very much worth a deeper look. Notice how the beautifully simple rhythm of two shorts and a long at “four years old”, “toys of gold” and similar places is used to propel the piece along.
The Birds is available from the composer by email: deebee(at)pacific.net.au
Susan Partlan says