OUP Women Composers Orchestral, Chamber, and Opera Catalogue

Discover choral works by David Bednall

Discover the choral music of Alan Bullard

Discover works by Bob Chilcott

Discover music by Gabriel Jackson

Discover the music of Cecilia McDowall.

Discover choral music by Sarah Quartel

Discover the musical works of John Rutter.

Discover the works of Howard Skempton

Discover the music of Will Todd

Discover the musical works of Mack Wilberg.

Celebrating women composers at Oxford University Press

A selection of works for choir by women composers published by Oxford University Press.

Songbird presents new and exciting original material for upper voices. Showcasing the work of today's most innovative names in choral writing, the series includes songs in a variety of scorings, from SA voices with piano to SSAA and percussion. With a range of distinctive musical styles - and warmth, flair, and character in abundance - this is upper-voice choral music at its very best.

The Emerging Voices series presents a selection of engaging short pieces tailored specifically to the needs of changing or 'cambiata' male voices. The songs have been commissioned from experienced composers in the field, with the aim of developing voices safely while also immersing singers in a range of styles and texts. Progressive in difficulty, from simple two-part songs to four-part arrangements, this series will inspire young performers at a pivotal juncture in their journey into the world of singing. Series Editor Martin Ashley and Series Editor Andy Brooke Professor Martin Ashley has researched four books and numerous academic papers based on the physiology and sociology of adolescent singers and devised the Boys Keep Singing project in collaboration with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Andy Brooke is a composer and arranger, specializing in choral music, and an experienced writer on matters of music education. He has taught music in state and independent schools in the UK, to primary, secondary, and post-16 age groups.

A celebration of Oxford's popular Songbird series, this collection of nine original works for upper voices in two, three, and four parts meets the need for fresh concert repertoire for youth and women's choirs. Featuring well-known composers such as Kerry Andrew, Cecilia McDowall, and Sarah Quartel, the collection includes a variety of styles and moods and a selection of pieces that are all melodically appealing and immediately approachable, with a contemporary twist. Texts from across the years touch on a range of themes, from the empowering to the quirky, with a particular emphasis on the natural world. Performance notes from compilers Neil Ferris and Joanna Tomlinson provide invaluable tips for rehearsal and performance, making this a complete and practical collection for contemporary upper-voice choirs.

This significant seven-movement work from Cecilia McDowall presents an imaginative pairing of extracts from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci with texts from the Latin Missa pro defunctis. Da Vinci's reflective and penetrating insights into the nature of mortality and all that it encompasses cast new light on the familiar Requiem texts, and McDowall employs her orchestral forces to create a rich, atmospheric backdrop to the profound narrative presented by the chorus and soprano and baritone soloists. Dark, sonorous writing precedes an energetic 'Sanctus', and the closing bars of the luminous 'Lux aeterna' create a powerful allusion to da Vinci's concept of 'The Perspective of Disappearance'.

for soprano and baritone soloists, SATB chorus, and orchestra This significant seven-movement work from Cecilia McDowall presents an imaginative pairing of extracts from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci with texts from the Latin Missa pro defunctis. Da Vinci's reflective and penetrating insights into the nature of mortality and all that it encompasses cast new light on the familiar Requiem texts, and McDowall employs her orchestral forces to create a rich, atmospheric backdrop to the profound narrative presented by the chorus and soprano and baritone soloists. Dark, sonorous writing precedes an energetic 'Sanctus', and the closing bars of the luminous 'Lux aeterna' create a powerful allusion to da Vinci's concept of 'The Perspective of Disappearance'.

With this majestic work Chilcott takes on a landmark of the choral repertory, the Christmas Oratorio. Words from St Luke and St Matthew are intertwined with 16th-19th-century poetry to create a compelling retelling of the Christmas story. Five hymn texts are set to new, original melodies that take their place among the season's tradition of great hymnody and enable the audience or congregation to join in with the choir. As in the St John Passion, much of the narrative is presented by a tenor soloist in the role of Evangelist, with focal points such as the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis and Rossetti's 'Love came down at Christmas' taken by mezzo-soprano and bass soloists. The chorus is integral to the storytelling, assuming small character roles and taking centre stage in two unaccompanied movements. A solo flute characterizes the angels, and the mellow tones of the brass ensemble evoke a sense of festive tradition.

Passion Music continues the fusion of jazz and choral music so successfully blended in Will Todd's Mass in Blue. The structure highlights different points in the Passion story, beginning with a new setting of 'Greater love has no man' and including an evocative Stabat Mater, a movement focusing on the seven last words of Christ, and a setting of 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?'. While some sections are reflective, Todd also makes full use of his understanding of energetic jazz and gospel. The vocal soloist is given plenty of expressive freedom, singing both with the choir and independently to achieve the characteristic jazz-soul style.

for violin and mixed choir This innovative and imaginative choral arrangement of The Lark Ascending has the original solo violin part accompanied by mixed choir. It sensitively sets George Meredith's poem (on which the original orchestration is based) and combines this with wordless vocal lines and vocal solos, preserving the texture and timeless effect of the original. Commissioned and premiered by the Swedish Chamber Choir, the work has also been recorded by the choir under the direction of Simon Phipps.

A celebration of Oxford's popular Songbird series, this collection of nine original works for upper voices in two, three, and four parts meets the need for fresh concert repertoire for youth and women's choirs. Featuring well-known composers such as Kerry Andrew, Cecilia McDowall, and Sarah Quartel, the collection includes a variety of styles and moods and a selection of pieces that are all melodically appealing and immediately approachable, with a contemporary twist. Texts from across the years touch on a range of themes, from the empowering to the quirky, with a particular emphasis on the natural world. Performance notes from compilers Neil Ferris and Joanna Tomlinson provide invaluable tips for rehearsal and performance, making this a complete and practical collection for contemporary upper-voice choirs.

This volume comprises twenty-eight of the finest oratorio choruses, complete short choral works, and movements from masses or requiems from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Drawing repertoire from Britain and mainland Europe, the volume features renowned choruses and familiar cornerstones of the repertoire, as well as some choral discoveries, all in new, carefully researched, and practical editions. Playable piano reductions for rehearsal use are included in the main volume, with a separate volume of purpose-made three-stave organ accompaniments, and newly typeset orchestral material available on rental. Intended for choral societies and cathedral, church, and concert choirs, this is a unique collection of choral classics for mixed voices and orchestra, and an invaluable practical addition to any choir's library.

Commissioned by Merton College, Oxford, this hour-long work for soloists, choir, and 10 players is divided into seven movements, beginning with Palm Sunday. Jackson's setting takes material from each of the four Gospel narratives, interspersed with Latin hymns and English texts by poets associated with Merton College over the centuries including Edmund Blunden and T. S. Eliot. The vocal score includes a piano reduction for rehearsal purposes.

for upper voices, SATB, solo violin, and piano Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo tells the extraordinary story of Nujeen Mustafa, a Kurdish teenager with cerebral palsy forced by war to flee her home and embark on an arduous journey to Europe with her sister. It sets a specially-written text by Kevin Crossley-Holland and is in five movements: 'Orphans of the World' is centred on Nujeen's life in Aleppo; 'Thousands milling at the border', 'I had never seen the sea before', and 'A lost tribe pushed from border to border' depict a refugee's perilous route across borders and waters; and 'Everyday Wonders', in which the teenager reflects on the 'everyday' joys of her new life. In response to the vivid text McDowall employs a wealth of musical effects, including chorales, rhythmic spoken sections, body percussion, and a solo violin part infused with Middle Eastern flavours. The prevailing mood of Nujeen's story is embodied by the final line of a chorale that opens and closes this unique concert work: 'singing the song of life itself.'

for SSSSAATTBB unaccompanied Commissioned by The Marian Consort in celebration of their 10th anniversary, and first performed in 2018, Jackson's is one of the most striking modern settings of this ancient text. With a rich scoring matching that of Scarlatti's setting of the same text, the composer's trademark diversity of texture is much in evidence. Passages of rich sonority give way to intimate soloistic sections, the lines spiced up by fiery rhythms and occasional arabesques and glissandi. The piece will be a very satisfying challenge for a proficient choir.

for SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied The text for this vibrant part-song is a deftly chosen selection of lines from Keats' Ode to a Nightingale. Premiered by the Vigala Singers in 2017, Jackson's setting features many of the composer's stylistic hallmarks: glissandi, decorative melismas, aleatoric patterns, and solo lines that float above the texture. Highly attractive and suitable for summer concerts.

for SATB soloists or choir unaccompanied This powerful work is a sequence of meditations on loss and longing, of fear and of hope, by turns contemplative and dramatic. The narrative is made up of a selection of poems by four exiled Latvian writers from the group known as the Hell's Kitchen Poets and present-day displaced persons from Palestine and Syria. The text is in Latvian and English, and a pronunciation guide for the Latvian text is included in the vocal score. Jackson also employs percussion for dramatic effect, with three singers required to play brake drum, railway man's whistle, and claves. With all of the trademarks of Jackson's compelling musical style, this piece will be an exciting challenge for choirs looking to explore universal themes. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/exile-meditations-9780193521933

Opera for soli, SATB chorus, and full orchestra (pub. 1969) The Lodger is based on the novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes and tells the story of the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, with the mysterious murderer's landlady being the main character of the opera. We see 'Jack' as a psychopath - one moment kind and gentle, the next a maniac. Tate describes the opera as 'bridging the opposed worlds of more advanced contemporary music and that of popular entertainment'. The libretto is by David Franklin, who was also a well-known soloist at the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne. The work was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, and as such, is suitable for the capabilities of student performers.

for SSAA and organ, and optional brass ensemble and timpani Commissioned by Benenden School, Make We Merry is an eight-movement piece which sets texts from the 15th to 19th centuries to a variety of choral textures with a highly characterful accompaniment. A vast array of sentiments is depicted, from quiet expectance and gentle wonder to boisterous jubilation, and the different movements provide a wonderfully paced journey through these moods. The final movement brings back motifs from the opening and grows to a thrillingly climactic ending to this exciting Christmas concert work.

Originally the title for Vaughan Williams's opera Sir John in Love, Fat Knight was conceived as a seven-movement orchestral suite that drew upon the opera and had, as its central character, Shakespeare's Falstaff. Vaughan Williams never completed the work and left only a two-piano score. It is from this score that the conductor Martin Yates has realised the Fat Knight suite, incorporating the orchestration from the completed opera.

The one-act ballet Job has been described as one of Vaughan Williams's mightiest achievements. It is a work which, in a full production, combines painting, literature, music, and dance. The work was inspired by William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, and includes quotations from the King James Bible. The result is a musical masterpiece, combining the ancient and the modern: Vaughan Williams's earlier style is in evidence, including tranquil pastoral melodies, but the work also anticipates the composer's later style. This new, scholarly edition, edited by Julian Rushton, will replace the existing OUP edition from 1934, and includes detailed preliminary matter, comprising a preface, sources and editorial method, and detailed textual notes.

Vaughan Williams's famous romance for solo violin and orchestra is given new life in this beautiful arrangement. For the first time, violinists can perform the original solo line as part of a string quartet, while also joining the other players for the longer tutti sections. Perfect as a rehearsal tool in preparation for a larger-scale orchestral concert, the arrangement is also ideal for performance in a chamber recital.

Vaughan Williams's famous romance for solo violin and orchestra is given new life in this beautiful arrangement, which features the original solo line as part of a string sextet. Perfect as a rehearsal tool in preparation for a larger-scale orchestral concert, the arrangement is also ideal for performance in a chamber recital. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-lark-ascending-9780193519619

The film 'Scott of the Antarctic' was produced by Ealing Studios and released in 1948. It recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated second expedition to the Antarctic in 1910-1913. The film is well-known for its score, composed by Vaughan Williams, which was later reworked to create his Sinfonia Antartica. Vaughan Williams's original score for the film was heavily edited in the studio and halved in length in order to create the final edit. It is now presented in its full, unedited form, assembled by the conductor Martin Yates, allowing listeners to hear the full grandeur of the composer's original for the first time. A recording of the work is available on the Dutton Epoch record label.

Sample scores of the Christmas, sacred and secular pieces which appear on the 2019 OUP Choral Highlights CD. To download the free recordings please visit https://global.oup.com/academic/category/arts-and-humanities/sheet-music/choral/new-cds

for SATB, piano, and optional guitar, bass, and drum kit Samba Mass is a joyous and colourful setting of the Latin Missa brevis.

for SSATB & piano or string orchestra The Shipping Forecast is in 3 movements: 'Donegal', 'They that go down to the sea in ships', and 'Naming'. The first and last movement are settings of poems by the poet, broadcaster, and academic, Seán Street. In 'Donegal' snatches of the shipping forecast (spoken) are woven into the atmospheric texture of the poem. The second movement is a setting of the Psalm 107: 23-26 | 28-29: 'They that go down to the sea in ships'. The setting has the feel of a Celtic lullaby, moving from a simple statement to a centre of turmoil then back to overlapping phrases, melting into tranquillity at the end. In the final movement, 'Naming', the text becomes 'a meditation on the fortunes of the sea as reflected in other names, gathered from coastal maps of Newfoundland'. Energetic, in perpetual motion and rhythmic, 'Naming' drives the whole work to an upbeat finish.

This 40-part unaccompanied motet was inspired by Thomas Tallis's famous 'Spem in alium' for the same forces. 'Lux orta est iusto' (Light dawns for the righteous) is scored for eight choirs of five voices (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass) with homophonic sections for the full choir complemented by antiphonal, imitative, and canonic sections for smaller choral groupings. The harmonic framework of the composition is elegant, and Bednall makes clever use of imitation and the regular changing of texture. This work has been recorded by The Epiphoni Consort, directed by Tim Reader, on the album 'David Bednall: Sudden Light'.

for SATB (with divisions) and organ This joyful setting of Psalm 98 is a bright and celebratory anthem of praise. The intricate organ writing offsets emphatic statements from the choir full of melodic and harmonic interest while grounded in assertive homorhythm.

for SATB (with divisions) and organ or chamber ensemble This is an uplifting and celebratory setting of the Latin Missa brevis. The choir may be accompanied by organ, chamber ensemble, or any one of the ensemble instruments in combination with organ, opening up several compelling performance options. Four French carol melodies are woven into the music, and performance with glockenspiel and trumpet bring these particularly to the fore. The chosen carol melodies are often associated with hymns from other Church seasons, making the work suitable for performance throughout the year.

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