Product Description
This choral work is sure to add excitement to your concert and it was given splendid reviews when it was first performed at Londons Royal Albert Hall. It was later performed at Croydons Fairfield Halls just outside London where it received a rapturous reception from the large audience. The work is ideal for music festivals (for which it was originally written) or any important event which needs a celebratory piece for choir and orchestra. The piece celebrates the endless joy of life and light, as children play on the seashore. The choral parts are not difficult and parts of the soprano could also be sung by childrens chorus if necessary. The words of the soprano solo part have a reflective, maternal quality as she watches the children playing on the shore. Singers are sure to enjoy the catchy melodies, the expressive soprano solo and the dramatic middle section of this work. Parts of the piece use several irregular time signatures. Dont let them put you off! They are good deal easier than they look and the score contains indicates how they break down into simple groups of two and three beats.
The orchestration is standard and requires: 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons; 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, percussion (4 players), violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello, double bass. The full score and all the orchestral parts are contained in a single PDF file. A high-quality audio file containing the orchestral accompaniment is also available separately. The choral score with piano reduction is available separately too, from SMP.
The words are by the distinguished and much-loved Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). He made significant contributions to literature and wrote a prodigious number of works including essays, philosophical treatises, journals, memoirs, short stories and letters. The text of this work is taken from two poems in the book entitled
Gitanjali. The title is translated as "Song Offerings" and was largely responsible for Tagore winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. The book contains over one hundred poems, translated freely by the author into English from the original Bengali, published in 1910. The English version appeared in 1912 published by the Indian Society of London. The text has been adapted slightly for this choral setting.
Colin Kirkpatrick has published a great deal of music and his publishers include Boosey & Hawkes, Novello, Paxton, Schott, Oxford University Press, Chester and Belwin Mills. His music has been performed and broadcast world-wide.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.