News
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE
Just For Starters - easy dances and miniatures for piano
Philip Ledger and Hilary Tadman-Robins have compiled a new piano album containing 24 pieces suitable for players in the early grades (1-3).
The publication includes arrangements of works by Blow, Arne, Mendelssohn and Chopin, plus 12 original piano pieces. It provides both technical and musical challenges, encourages flexibility of hand positions, introduces triadic figures, and offers guideline fingering.
I sing of a maiden by Graham Ross
Congratulations to Graham Ross who has won The John Sanders Memorial Competition for Young Composers 2009 for his setting of 'I sing of a maiden'. Written for unaccompanied mixed voices, the work will be given its first performance at Gloucester Cathedral on Sunday 11 July 2009. Other performances are also planned in UK cathedrals including Canterbury, Coventry, Ely, Exeter, Lincoln, Sheffield, St David's and Portmouth. Encore Publications has a strong association with the music of the late John Sanders and is pleased encourage young composers to maintain the cathedral choral tradition. For more information, visit The Sanders Society at www.sanderssociety.org.uk.
Requiem (A Thanksgiving For Life) by Philip Ledger
The world premiere of the original chamber ensemble version of this major choral work was given by the Choir of Christ Church, Christiana Hundred, USA on 4 November 2007 as part of a Choral Eucharist. The first UK performance was given by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, on 11 November 2007 (Remembrance Sunday) as the musical setting for a service in King’s College Chapel. Both performances were conducted by the composer.
The first performance of the music in its rescored orchestral version was given by Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with singers also from Eastbourne College Choral Society and Junior King’s School Canterbury Choir, conducted by Graham Jones with soloists Patricia Rozario and Mark Le Brocq on 3 May 2008 at Chichester Cathedral.
The BBC Singers, conducted by David Hill, recorded the chamber version of Philip Ledger’s Requiem for broadcast in an episode of The Choir on BBC Radio 3 in October 2008. In addition, the Choir of Christ’s College, Cambridge, have also recorded the work under Philip Ledger's direction for commercial release on the Regent Records label in September 2009, together with new anthems and carols by the composer.
Subtitled A thanksgiving for life, this beautiful Requiem explores a range of emotions and has Latin movements interspersed with settings of some wonderful poems by the mystical English poet, Thomas Traherne (c. 1636-74). ‘The poems of Traherne are full of wonder at God's creation and the part that we play in it,’ says Philip Ledger. ‘For me, his joyful imagery ideally complements the more austere, but beautiful, Latin words of the Requiem.’
The piece begins with the birth of the soul and ends with its final journey to paradise. It may be sung liturgically, as well as in concert halls, and is scored with three different instrumentations.
Services of Thanksgiving are now often held in place of Funeral Services. Two movements in particular, Thanksgiving hymn and Agnus Dei and Pie Jesu (the two sections are set as one movement) may be performed separately on these occasions. Thanksgiving hymn, a unison setting with descant, is suitable for congregational participation.
The third movement, Thanksgiving hymn, is also published in the collection, The power and glory, containing eight hymns with descants. The Pie Jesu from the fifth movement is available as a separate anthem for soprano solo, mixed voices and organ.
REVIEWS
'The publishers have produced a clear and attractive edition…' - Choir & Organ
'The most striking music is in the Traherne settings, which have inspired the composer to match the words with appropriate musical imagery, and which provide the work with its distinctive features. It is well worth considering if you sing a Requiem setting on Remembrance Sunday or at All Souls.' - Church Music Quarterly, RSCM
'This work represents a new direction for Sir Philip both in scale and style. There is much that is immediately attractive; listener-pleasing features include descending basses, modulations to the flattened 7th key, and a cello obbligato in the Pie Jesu.' - Organists' Review
'Ledger’s integration of traditional and less familiar texts, and of Latin and English is appealing…the flexibility of the necessary performing forces, particularly the small size of the chamber ensemble required for the middle-sized orchestration option, and the relatively modest demands of the piece places on the choir, are practical plusses and do not detract from a musical result that is at once moving and tasteful.' - The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT Sir Philip Ledger CBE
If you would like more information about conductor, pianist and composer, Sir Philip Ledger CBE, visit his new website at www.sirphilipledger.com.
Choirs interested in arranging a workshop or training session based on the Requiem (A thanksgiving for life) or other compositions by Philip Ledger are invited to contact Tim Rogers at Encore Publications. Email info@encorepublications.com.
Other new titles by Philip Ledger
DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WEEP, the words of this anthem for SATB and organ were left in an envelope for his parents, to be opened in the event of his death, by a British soldier, Stephen Cummins, who was killed on active service in Northern Ireland in March 1989, £1.75
THE POWER AND GLORY, eight hymns with descants arranged for mixed voices and organ including settings for Advent, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Thanksgiving and Evening, £3.95. All of the music is published for the first time. And four of the descant arrangements from this publication have been recorded by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, directed by Philip Ledger, on CDs released by EMI.