Searching for neil sands - 29 results.
The Chantry Canticles were composed by Neil Sands for Chantry Quire, and sung by them in Chichester Cathedral in March 2003. It hearkens back to the old fauxbourdon style. There is a tenor solo in the Magnificat and a soprano solo in the Nunc Dimittis.
Death on a Cross is a short anthem for unaccompanied SATB, written in 2002 by Neil Sands. Two dramatic sections border a lively and rhythmic centrepiece. The text is taken from the second letter of St Paul to the Philippians. The first performance was given during Lent in 2004 by the St Richard Singers of Chichester.
Hush, No More is a magical little chorus from Purcell's The Fairy Queen, here arranged for unaccompanied SATB by Neil Sands. It was first performed by Lymington's Amici Singers in 2001.
On Marriage was composed by Neil Sands and first sung at his wedding by Iestyn Morris, with Victoria Shone at the piano. The text is from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.
Sainte Cécile is a setting for unaccompanied SATB of a text by St Teresa of Lisieux, in praise of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. However the text concentrates not on her musical connections, but on Cecilia's life story, in which she submitted herself fully to the will of God, and declared Christ as the spouse of her soul. Teresa had a great devotion to Cecilia, and tried to emulate in her own life the values Cecilia had lived in hers.
A setting for unaccompanied SATB of the prayer Hail, Holy Queen (in Latin).
The piece's four sections start with a tranquil and lyrical opening in a radiant A major. This leads to a vigorous and frightening 'Ad te clamabo' - 'To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve'. After this the peace returns for 'Eia ergo' - 'Turn then, most gracious advocate', and the serene invocation 'O clemens' - 'O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary' rounds the piece off in an atmosphere of approaching slumber.
Salve, Regina,
mater misericordiae:
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, Advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis, Virgo Maria.
This arrangement of the Irish folksong She Moved Through the Fair was written for the contralto Victoria Shone, and given its first performance by her, with Patrick Larley accompanying, in July 2003.
Another verse (the third) was added to the original version at the request of Carola Darwin.
An energetic little quartet in three movements. The first movement combines a stately pizzicato with a high solo for the first violin, which hands over to solos in the other instruments. The second movement is a more intense, brooding piece. The third and final movement is a fast and energetic scherzo.
The whole quartet lasts a little over six minutes.
I thought these 3 movements were fantastic.....Modern, well formed and complex writing that is palatable for composers and audiences alike. - Nigel Peers Coombes.
A quasi-Baroque suite in four movements for oboe and harpsichord or piano.
The first movement is a regal Pavanne, which takes the players on a slow procession through several keys, always underpinned in the left hand of the harpsichord by a repeating rhythm.
The Largo gives the oboe passionate phrases, which begin quietly and gradually grow in volume and intensity before falling away again.
A jaunty little Mazurka and a three-part imitative Finale finish the suite.
The full score and the oboe part are available together.
The Hope of All The World is a very short (1'30") carol for Christmas, for SATB with soprano solo. It was first performed at Christmas 2001 by the Ytenerent singers of Lymington, soloist Ruth Buddell.
Were You There? is a powerful but simple arrangement of the very popular spiritual often used around Easter time. It is arranged here for unaccompanied SATB. Eight verses are given but there's no need to sing them all if you want to use a shorter version. On the other hand, using all eight verses can provide a wonderful backdrop for example to the Veneration of the Cross in a Good Friday service.
Each verse is about a minute long, so the whole song lasts roughly eight minutes.
Were You There? was first performed by the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers in Aberystwyth.
Word Made Flesh is a setting of the mystical opening
of the gospel of St John: In the beginning was the word.... It was
commissioned by the Lymington Choral Society and first performed
by them under Peter Davies in December 2000. It is scored for SATB with chamber
ensemble using the same instrumentation (flute doubling piccolo, oboe, cello, harp,
chamber organ and timpani) as the small version of Rutter's Requiem, an ideal
companion piece, which was performed in the same program.
There are three
entries for Word Made Flesh in the catalogue, so please
make sure you know what you're ordering. This page shows the full score. In
addition, there are vocal scores and instrumental parts available.
The words to this atmospheric piece are by Mark Nall. The music is still and evocative, static but ever shifting. The piece was given its first performance by students at University College of North Wales, Bangor, under the direction of the composer and in the presence of the poet.
If you are performing this, you'll probably need a score for the conductor if you use one, and another for the contralto. The other instrumentalists have their separate parts, as usual.
A charming setting for three equal voices (men's or women's, or children's) and piano of a carol by Leslie Norris.
A lively arrangement for choir of Elgar's famous masterpiece. This arrangement was commissioned by St Richard Singers of Chichester, and given its first performance by them.
Although it's accompanied, most of the decorative figuration is in the choral parts, to syllables that suggest the instruments that play those lines in Elgar's original. A pronunciation guide is supplied, which includes the cymbal clashes and bass drum bangs the choir have to perform!
It's a lot of fun to rehearse and perform, and of course your audience can join in with the Land of Hope and Glory part!
A setting of the famous hymn for Eastertide It is a thing most wonderful, for unaccompanied SATB, in which the tune always appears in one part or another all the way through.
A tenor solo kicks off, before the choir bring in the second verse at a slightly faster tempo. Verses 3 & 4 are more introspective, with an ebb and flow that follows the natural line of the phrases.
Some passionate moments and some reflective sections make this short piece a joy to sing.
Herongate is dedicated to Anthony Cartmell.
Good News Fanfares is a set of 12 short pieces for use after gospel readings.
The pieces cover a range of different moods, and the organist is advised to have a look at the gospel reading before
the service, and choose a fanfare accordingly. Some are unremittingly loud and reminiscent of the style Messiaen used
to call extatique. Others are quieter, more mysterious and even mystical, while still others are regal fanfares
in the traditional sense.
The Chantry Folksongs were commissioned by Chantry Quire of Chichester as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations.
Four composers were asked to choose a folksong from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and to arrange it for
unaccompanied SATB. Two of the composers followed the brief.
The folksongs are The Braes O' Balquhidder from Scotland, arranged by Neil Sands, He Gives His Beloved
Certain Rhymes, an Irish text by WB Yeats set by Patrick Larley, Suo Gân, a Welsh folksong
arranged by Victoria Larley, and The Keel Row, from England, arranged by James Webb with a piano accompaniment.
The set of contrasting folksongs was first sung by Chantry Quire in 2010.
Mass From Verbena is a setting of the new translation of the Roman Missal for use in Roman Catholic churches
from Advent 2011. It is a simple but imaginative setting, not difficult to grasp but atmospheric and prayerful.
The accompaniment is for organ or piano and guitar, with optional melody instruments. The voices divide only rarely,
and when they do the divisions are optional. The priest will recognise most of his material from the Missal plainsong.
This is a photocopyable resource. You are encouraged to make as many copies as you like for your own use within
your church (or school etc), but you may not distribute copies outside your church. Copies are provided of the vocal
score, the congregation's score, the melody instruments in C and in Bb, and the guitar part, both assembled for use
and loose for ease of copying.
An arrangement for organ of Bach's highly popular piece originally for strings. It's the second movement from his
Suite No 3 in D major, BWV 1068. The popular name Air On The G String actually refers to an arrangement of
the Air by August Wilhelmj, rather than to Bach's original.
Although the suite is for orchestra, the movement is for strings. This arrangement is faithful to the part-writing
of the original. It's not a simplified version aimed at beginner organists.
The piece is an enduring favourite at weddings, and should be in every organist's collection.
Almost all the music I write is for voices. The words I'm setting dictate the form of the
music, and usually the very first spark of an idea of what to write comes from the words.
When I was asked to write a string quartet about Chichester and its surroundings, I knew
there'd be no such springboard. So to take the place of the words I decided to conjure for
myself a set of vivid mental images, both visual and aural, of Chichester Cathedral and the
South Downs, and use those images as a starting point for the music.
We're in the cathedral as the clock chimes six. Evensong is on. We hear the Responses
being sung, the Precentor's intonations being answered by the unaccompanied choir. A
sung Kyrie is followed by a Lord's Prayer, both parts of the daily ritual of worship at the
cathedral that is already many centuries old. As the service comes to an end, and the
reverent hush of the congregation begins to give way, tentatively at first, to chatter,
we leave the building, and travel out into the hills that surround Chichester, in the
company of the cathedral's nesting peregrine falcons, and explore the landscape
from their aerial perspective. With them we witness the hills' many moods; now
boisterous, now eerie, now subdued, always pastoral.
But even this far off, the cathedral is always visible, like a tiny jewel on the vast
landscape, and, at the very edge of our hearing, perhaps we can still hear the bell.
Jesus' Lullaby sprang from several sources of inspiration, and its composition owes many debts. Singing some years ago on a
recording of John Rutter's beautiful setting of Lullay, mine Liking, I had a vision of a style that married its joy and
simplicity with more challenging lyrics. Starting with the same text, I turned Mary's lullaby into a conversation by adding words for
Jesus; but this is Jesus at the time of his ministry, old enough to be Mary's father. The joyful new mother and dedicated missionary
sing lullaby to each other across the years.
As a boy chorister at St John's College Cambridge, one out of the myriad chants to which we sang psalms stuck in my memory as the most
beautiful (with the possible exception of Tonus peregrinus!), by Alan Hemmings, sometime organ scholar. Andrew Nethsinga, the current
Director of Music, kindly sent me a copy of this lovely chant, which gives Mary her melody, and both her and her child their harmony. I
am most grateful to Alan for allowing me to use his chant. Mary's harmony is gradually muddied on each repeat of her refrain with a sort
of written-out reverb effect. Jesus adapts the harmony to his Mahlerian tune (from Das Lied von der Erde), and the piece begins
and ends in "His" key. I wrote my own chant for the chorus, whose passages should have a feel of Anglican psalmody.
I am most grateful to Iain Simcock, Jamie Hall and Neil Sands for their invaluable comments on the score from their various
perspectives, and to Charles Bennett, who kindly criticised my text.
The piece's first performance was by the Ensemble Vocale of the Académie Vocale de Paris directed by Iain Simcock, who also played the
piano, with Reuben
Thomas as Jesus and Morgane Collomb as Mary, at the church of St-Germain-des-prés in Paris on 19th December 2013. My heartfelt thanks go
to Iain and the singers of the Académie Vocale de Paris for being such wonderful musical companions over our years of making music
together, giving me my first taste both of teaching the church music tradition in which I grew up, and of directing a choir. It is in
humble recognition of an immense gift, and not in any hope of being able to repay it, that I offer them this piece.
Written for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in Chichester, for a small group of singers, too few to be able to
manage SATB. This expressive piece is ideal for choirs where the singers are few in number or not confident enough to sing in harmony.
The unison voices stay within a range of a 6th, which can be reached by any voice part. They are guided to their notes by the organ, whose
colourful harmonies owe much to Messiaen.
In the Ordinariate Mass rite, immediately before the Communion Antiphon comes a threefold adaptation of the Centurion's act of faith from Matthew 8:8:
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.
Not Worthy is a setting for unison voices and organ of this text, written originally for the use of the
Ordinariate in Chichester, West Sussex. It's for unison voices, reflecting both the distribution of singers in the Chichester
choir and the desire of the congregation there to join in with the singing. It should therefore be easy to adopt this piece
into other Ordinariate groups.
Care should be taken that those rhythms which look fiddly not be made to sound fiddly; the singers should adopt an unhurrying
rubato, and not be too percussive in their enunciation.
Dawn of the Cello is a set of entertaining pieces written originally for my daughter Dawn when she
was a beginner on the cello. I wanted to create a set that would be characterful, fun, catchy and
above all, rewarding for the cellist.
The piece I wrote first was Little Steps, just for fun, when Dawn was advanced enough to play any
open string, pizzicato, but nothing else. All the interest is in the piano part, therefore, so that when
playing it, Dawn would still feel she was performing real music, rather than just playing an exercise
for open strings.
It was at Dawn's teacher Emma Sharrock's suggestion that I then went on to produce a full set of
20 pieces, starting right at the beginning and gradually adding to the challenges as the pupil's
repertoire of cello rudiments grows.
It was also Emma's suggestion that I provide an alternative accompaniment, for teachers who would
prefer to accompany on their own cello than use the original piano part.
I'm very grateful to Emma for her advice and expertise. I wouldn't have been able to produce this set
without her.
Dawn of the Cello is dedicated to Dawn Sands, with all my love.
A setting of the Easter Sequence as used in the liturgy on Easter Sunday. The disciples quiz Mary after she returns to them on Easter morning
with stories about having met the risen Christ.
The plainsong-like voice parts move largely only by step. Care should be taken with the phrasing, so that the wonderful words, imbued with
contrasts and contradictions, don't sag. Where the voices divide, the upper part can be taken by a single voice or a small group.
O taste and see is a motet for use at communion. It is similar in feel to a stately procession, reminiscent of the cerdd dant music of Wales.
The piece is written with those choirs in mind who, perhaps lacking numbers in all voice parts, need to play it safe. The choir's part consists
of the words 'Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus', sung in unison, and repeated in each of the three verses. It can even be omitted
altogether, as the organ can incorporate the choir's part if desired.
On the other hand, there is plenty for a soloist to get her or his teeth into. Her part is very different in each of the three verses, becoming
progressively more challenging in each one. The melodic lines contain some unpredictable intervals, but are always supported by the chord
progression provided by the organ, making them very satisfying to sing.
The soloist's words are from Psalm 34 in the Tyndale translation, the first translation of the Bible to appear in English. The fragments used
here include 'O taste and see how gracious the Lord is'.
Maiden Bliss is an enchanting setting of a relatively unknown verse of Christina Rossetti's In the bleak midwinter, a verse absent from some hymnals and collections. It paints a simple picture of Mary kissing her son, the newborn Jesus, a privilege denied even the throng of angels gathered in witness.
A live recording of Ely Cathedral Girls singing Maiden Bliss during evensong on 13 December, 2023 under Sarah MacDonald is here.
It's for SA choir, so is suited to churches with no tenor or bass singers, and can be successfully performed by only a few singers.
This arrangement was written for the altos, tenors, and basses of Selwyn Choir, for Shrove Tuesday 2022, which also happened to be St David's Day. The dedicatees are Adam Field, the organ scholar, who was conducting that service as I was in Ely that day, and Mererid Jones, Welsh alto choral scholar from Newnham College.
Ironically, for the first performance, Mererid was otherwise occupied beating Oxford in the varsity women's rugby, so we didn't attempt it in Welsh at the time. I'm grateful to Neil Sands for suggesting that it could work in both languages, and for helping with the underlay in this published edition. The saddest thing about the premiere performance was that the livestream failed, so I didn't get to hear it at all (despite having a great deal of time on my hands shortly thereafter thanks to being thrust into covid isolation!).
It's a relatively straightforward though contrapuntal treatment of the well-loved song, with the melody passing between the parts so that everyone gets a crack at the tune at some point during the anthem.