[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I love my job, I really do. I just need some space and a bunch of people and we will make beautiful music together.   Photo by Heather Jennings &...

"Demain, dès l'aube" is dedicated to my dear friend Lillian Holowka and her partner Donald Bergen, who died less than a year apart in 2013 and 2014. Victor Hugo's heart-wrenching 1847 Poem describes a walk he plans to take tomorrow morning ("Demain, dè...  more"Demain, dès l'aube" is dedicated to my dear friend Lillian Holowka and her partner Donald Bergen, who died less than a year apart in 2013 and 2014. Victor Hugo's heart-wrenching 1847 Poem describes a walk he plans to take tomorrow morning ("Demain, dès l'aube") through the countryside to his daughter Léopoldine's grave four years after her tragic death in a boating accident, which also took the life of her husband Charles who had tried to save her. Sincere thanks to Matthew Curtis (choraltracks.com) for recording "Demain, dès l'aube." To purchase the sheet music for this song, please contact: info@leadingnote.com. I would like to acknowledge the a cappella choir that I sing in, The Stairwell Carollers, and our director Pierre Massie, for their musical inspiration these past 26 years. I would also like to thank my friends in our "Ad hoc Chorale" for testing out this piece in one of our informal workshops and offering valuable comments. And with deepest appreciation to my brother Adam Rain and m...    less

"I wandered lonely as a cloud" is a setting by composer Elani Willemse, of the Poem of the same title by William Wordsworth, telling of the poet's melancholic experience of loneliness within his daily existance and how this melancholy is briefly relieved ...  more"I wandered lonely as a cloud" is a setting by composer Elani Willemse, of the Poem of the same title by William Wordsworth, telling of the poet's melancholic experience of loneliness within his daily existance and how this melancholy is briefly relieved upon encountering a vast and beautiful field of daffodils. The melody paints the landscape, written in a minor key, which is then resolved to the major when his sadness finds resolution in this beauty that he experienced. Synaesthesia is incorporated by using specific harmonies and rhythmic patterns to imitate what the composer might imagine the poet saw, and the emotions he felt. This ultimately transforming the piece into a choral musical painting.  less

The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York has a “Poetry in Motion” series that puts posters of poetry in subway cars. I was on the 1 train on Manhattan’s West Side one day when I saw the Poem “Heaven,” by Patrick Phillips. I was immediately captured ...  moreThe Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York has a “Poetry in Motion” series that puts posters of poetry in subway cars. I was on the 1 train on Manhattan’s West Side one day when I saw the Poem “Heaven,” by Patrick Phillips. I was immediately captured by the simple beauty of Patrick’s Poem, and the mystery of the first line, “It will be the past.” I loved his vision and thought immediately that I wanted to compose music for this Poem. Mystery, joy, wonder. “Heaven” is the winner of choral composition competitions sponsored by both the Manhattan Choral Ensemble and Georgia College. Performed by the Georgia College Max Noah Singers, Dr. Jennifer Flory conducting.  less

Score video of FIRE AND ICE, Greg Bartholomew's setting for mixed choir (SATB) of the Poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963). Audio recording by Matt Curtis (Choral Tracks). Published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine and again in 1923 in his Pulitzer ...  moreScore video of FIRE AND ICE, Greg Bartholomew's setting for mixed choir (SATB) of the Poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963). Audio recording by Matt Curtis (Choral Tracks). Published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine and again in 1923 in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book New Hampshire, "Fire and Ice" is one of Robert Frost's most popular Poems. Some have asserted that the Poem is a compression of Dante's Inferno. In an anecdote he recounted in 1960, prominent astronomer Harlow Shapley claimed to have inspired Fire and Ice in an encounter with Frost a year before the Poem was published. Frost asked Shapley how the world will end, and Shapley responded that either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth will somehow escape this fate only to end up slowly freezing in deep space. Sheet music for FIRE AND ICE is available from J.W. Pepper: https://www.jwpepper.com/11129789.item For more information visit www.gregbartholomew.com/fireindex.html #Choralmusic #choir #RobertFrost  less

I think I’ve started a new project that is going to keep me learning new musical skills for a long time….. I love working on choral arrangements, however the more I do and the more I think about them, the more I actually learn. I am extremel...

Description of our dear old park (in Loughborough) on a hot day, with a light swing. The Poem is by my father Stanley N Solomons Music by David Warin Solomons Performed by The Composers Choir under Daniel Shaw

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I recently wrote about some of the reasons why you might think you can’t sing.   Suessian megaphone by theparadigmshifter   One of th...

Madrigal by Orlando di Lasso based on part of a Poem by Pierre de Ronsard, performed by multitrack one-man choir dwsChorale Bonjour mon cœur, Bonjour ma douce vie, Greetings dear heart Greetings oh my sweet life Bonjour mon œil Bonjour ma chere ...  moreMadrigal by Orlando di Lasso based on part of a Poem by Pierre de Ronsard, performed by multitrack one-man choir dwsChorale Bonjour mon cœur, Bonjour ma douce vie, Greetings dear heart Greetings oh my sweet life Bonjour mon œil Bonjour ma chere amie! Greetings my eye's delight Greetings my dearest friend Hé! bonjour, ma toute belle, Ma mignardise, Hi! and greetings, my beautiful one my dainty one Bonjour, mes délices, Mon amour, Greetings my delights My love Mon doux printemps, Ma douce fleur nouvelle, My sweet spring-time My sweet fresh flower Mon doux plaisir, Ma douce colombelle, My sweet pleasure My sweet dove Mon passereau, ma gente tourterelle! Bonjour ma douce rebelle. My sparrow, my gentle turtledove Greetings my sweet rebel.  less