SKU: A0.1019364

Living, Springs Of Living Water Church Anthem for SATB and Piano composed in 2014.

Inspiration

While attending Easter Church Service in 2014 I suddenly got the idea for this piece. Throughout the service I kept humming the melody to myself so I wouldn't forget it. By the time I got home I had the entire piece worked out. I quickly wrote it down and within a couple of weeks had the basic structure created. It's rare that this occurs for me but is a testament to the inspiration of God during Easter. The style of the music is somewhat impressionistic with a flowing nature that brings peace to the listener. The lyrics are all biblical; slightly modified.

The Music

Impressionistic in nature it starts with a gently flowing accompaniment followed by unison voices quietly speaking of the Living Water. After the initial A section the accompaniment changes into a more static but moving style as the lyrics speak to our belief and our needs. This is followed by a dramatic transition to the opening theme now embellished with a sort of question answer back and forth between the words Living and Water with the answer always resolving to the latter word. The piece quietly ends as it began. I will always remember the Easter of 2014 for Gods inspiration that created this piece.

SKU: A0.1469047

A classic Bon Jovi song. 
Here is an out-of-the-box arrangement for a collegiate pop choir!  Its high-energy, rhythmic, and fun vibe will have audiences rocking out.  Don't be surprised if your performance of this song becomes a full-out sing-along with everyone!

SKU: A0.1235765

Performed by Cage The Elephant.  This song is about no rest for the wicked (or eternal work for evil doers).  The song refers to money not growing on trees, working unethically to make money, making a living any way possible, a girl offering company, a man attempting to rob, a preacher robbing from the church.  This arrangement includes a dance break and is designed for high school or college show choir, concert choir or community choir.  Concert Band Score accompaniment also available.  Performance time is 3:00.

SKU: A0.927449

Three Wise Camels - an amazing journey of discovery.

Particularly appropriate for churches and schools.

Camelia, Humphrey and Samson are three camels who set out on what proves to be the most exciting excursion of their lives! Seen through the camels' eyes, the musical reveals truths about the costly gifts of the Three Kings as they follow the extra-bright star which guides them along their way to Bethlehem where, to their amazement, they discover that the gifts are for a little boy. Samson is awe-struck when he sees angels while Humphrey wonders why the child isn't living in a palace. Camelia is just thrilled that she came! The musical ends with them all bowing down in praise and worship of Jesus, the true King.

Told in a light-hearted and amusing way, this musical will appeal to young and old alike. Eight songs for choir, soloists and three wise camels.

This vocal score contains all 8 songs with full piano score, guitar chords, SATB choir parts plus solo parts, and drama.

SKU: A0.1308788

*Purchase 10 copies to perform this piece with your ensemble of any size
*Purchase the instrumental pack (bass and drum part) here: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/beyond-the-sea-instrumental-pack-only-22605052.html

This arrangement came to me over a number of weeks in a very organic way that began with the ostinato piano figure that prevails throughout the piece. I began playing it unattached to any tune and I just liked the way the line descended in the left hand and how I had to find voicings in the right hand that made harmonic sense – like a puzzle. As I was playing around with this puzzle, thoughts of my father were swirling around in my head – I was at the end of a 4 year period of separation from my parents owing to the fact that I’m a Canadian expat living in the US and the borders were closed for a long time because of Covid, and then I had work visa issues and my parents were getting older before my eyes. They were also losing friends to cancer and other ailments and my dad, in particular, had experienced the loss of many close family members and friends during our separation and it was taking a toll.

 

One day I sat down and played the now familiar-to-me ostinato but randomly I started to sing “Beyond the Sea� over it and it fit perfectly. I thought it a happy coincidence. As the days went on I committed to putting my ostinato with Beyond the Sea and the lyrics started to seep into my brain. I have, of course, heard these lyrics many times before, (who hasn’t seen Finding Nemo?) but the lyrics didn’t mean what I thought they meant… They’re NOT about the ocean, they are about my dad!!! Well, kind of… I realized, through careful reflection and by slowing the words down, that the lyrics are talking about a person in heaven who is patiently waiting for their partner to join them.

 

Somewhere beyond the sea

She’s there watching for me

…

It’s far beyond the stars

It’s near beyond the moon

 

And the lyrics end with them meeting, “We’ll meet beyond the shore, we’ll kiss just like before,� and the song ends with: “and never again I’ll go sailing.� It’s like the big bang went off in my head about why all these thoughts of my dad, and his friends, and this arrangement, and what it all meant suddenly just MADE SENSE and I was able to start formulating a plan.

 

Performance Suggestions: 

The improvisation solo in the middle should be free of any traditional “scat syllables� and should be more of a lament. Listen to singers like Aubrey Johnson improvise on ballads for inspiration. An idea for that improv section might be to have a male singer start the improv, then a female singer joins (as if together in heaven) then they sing letter F together (warning: will cause tears…). All solo sections do not have to be sung as written – soloists can take liberties with the melody as the spirit moves.

SKU: A0.751991

Performed by Plain White T's. This song is about coming of age and living life to the fullest. The song refers to being unstoppable, falling in love, reconciling youth, celebrating life, coming of age. This arrangement is designed for high school or college show choir, concert choir or community choir. Band Score accompaniment also available. Performance time is approximately 2:00.

SKU: LV.4600

Living Waters. A Collection of Beautiful Temperance Songs. Tolling Sadly Tolling, or, The Drunkards Funeral. Song & Chorus. Words and Music by Wm. T. Meyer. Published 1870 by Oliver Ditson & Co., 451 Washington St in Boston. Composition of strophic with chorus with piano and voice (solo and satb chorus) instrumentation. Subject headings for this piece include Wells, Alcoholism, Death, Funeral rites & ceremonies, Fathers & children. First line reads hark! What means that solemn pealing, coming from the old church tower?..

About The Lester S. Levy Collection

The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music consists of over 29,000 pieces of American popular music. Donated to Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, the collection's strength is its thorough documentation of nineteenth-century American through popular music. This sheet music has been provided by Project Gado, a San Francisco Bay Area startup whose mission is to digitize and share the world's visual history.

WARNING: These titles are provided as historical documents. Language and concepts within reflect the opinions and values of the time and may be offensive to some.

SKU: A0.1030790

This moving work, born out of friendship between composer and poet, speaks of hope, loss, and renewal in the form of light, sunsets and sunrises. It is perfect for general concert use, living composer features, funerals, and any concerts/services dealing with the metaphors of darkness and light and/or sunsets and sunrises.

The text comes from the personal experiences of the poet, Philip Tabler. He’d felt compelled to write this poem for a dear friend that had lost her father. As the story goes, it was her father’s last request that he see the sunset before his passing and though he was confined to his bed and bedroom, the family was able to adjust the room in such a way that he was able to see the sunset out of the bedroom window one final time in the moments just before he passed.

The recording features the Memphis ChoralArts and University of Memphis Collegiate Choir ensembles performing in the beautiful and acoustic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Memphis, TN under the director of the composer on April 23, 2017.

SKU: A0.816709

Music and César Franck
Text by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Panis angelicus (Latin for Bread of Angels) is the penultimate strophe of the hymn Sacris solemniis.  Written by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi as part of a complete liturgy of the feast which includes prayers for the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis cœlicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum
pauper, servus et humilis.

Thus Angels' Bread is made
the Bread of man today:
the Living Bread from heaven
with figures dost away:
O wondrous gift indeed!
the poor and lowly may
upon their Lord and Master feed.

César Franck’s setting of these words is perhaps the most well known.  This arrangement for 2-part choir makes this wonderful piece accessible to choirs of all abilities.

When allocating voices, put higher voices (S/T) on the upper part and lower voices (A/B) on the lower part.

SKU: A0.1240133

Mystery of the Hills is an S.A.T.B. choral work describing the wonder of the Flint Hills, a region in East Central Kansas.  I’m not a native Kansan, but whenever I drive through this area, I am enthralled by the infinite sense of expanse and gently rolling terrain. Geologists believe there was an inland seaway that covered central North America starting 290 million years ago. Over time, alternating layers of hard limestone and softer shale rocks formed. It is believed erosion caused the varied elevations of terrain, unique to the slopes of the Flint Hills. These surface layers of limestone and chert prevented the settler’s ability to farm, which in turn preserved the integrity of the soil. Today, the prairie grasses can reach 10 feet tall if not managed.  The rich grasses are prime for feeding livestock. This music attempts to provide images of traveling through the Flint Hills today, while imagining changes over eons of time, due to weather and eventually, human interaction.  Generally, the upper voices provide the imagery and some history, while the lower voices describe a bedrock foundation.  Describing the rock foundation found in the Flint Hills is also a metaphor for human strife and struggle as man, among living flora and fauna, interact with the area. The vocal ranges and harmonies are accessible for young ensembles, whether in development or with years of experience.