(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 High School or Higher
Uses: General Concert Use
Program Themes: Freedom, Birds of Prey, Awe of Nature
This Piece Would Program Well With: Soar Up Falcons by Valetin Mantulin available through from JWPepper and Sheet Music Plus
This setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ moving poem by the same name is filled with musical imagery. James Johnson gives life to the falcon through some marvelous text painting. Though the writing is a bit chromatic at times, the voice parts are well supported by the organ making this piece approachable by a good high school or college level choir. I find The Windhover to be rhythmically refreshing. Enjoy!
The Windhover is available from the composer at jjphoenix(a)charter.net
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