Choir rehearsals started last week (yay!) and two of our fall anthems are total earworms. You know it’s a catchy melody when your toddler keeps asking you to sing to to him!
First up: “Awake, My Heart” by Jane M. Marshall
One of the delights of a new job is going through the anthems your predecessors curated and find new-to-you gems. What a lovely piece—and bouncy in the best of ways. I couldn’t find any recordings with the lilt that I’m going for in my choir, but here’s a much more “stalwart” take on the piece.
Second: “Sweet Canaan” arranged by Martha Shaffer
What I’m loving about this setting is that it’s not needlessly complicated. There are enough unexpected chords to be interesting but not pretentious. Plus, Shaffer plays with the voicing in a wonderful way. The choir moves from thin to thick (7 part divisi) textures in just a phrase—it’s not exactly an orchestral crescendo, but the effect is similar. (FYI, the divisi is not tricky and wouldn’t be a barrier for smaller choirs. We’re talking major chords with close spacing, rather than open 4-part chords.) Here’s a recording and the sheet music.
GEMS is a series devoted to continual delights—music, books, and other things that bring joy, year after year.
