SKU: A0.891202

SKU: A0.891216

If you are looking to lighten your concert, to program real music, or a piece with rapid text delivery satisfying to mid-level treble choirs and treble community choirs, bring this hilarious 3 minute piece to your outstanding accompanist-pianist and your developing ensemble.  Debuted for choir during an educational outreach concert for children with families, Mozart's At the Window is also an effective selection or encore for a Mozart concert, or standing on its own.  Piece features lots of vocal doubling and is fully supported by a pianistic reduction-- this piece shines with an amazing accompanist.

The choral arranger writes: After getting absolutely sick of the inane music I'd been playing for my young children in the car, I was elated to discover Gunnar Madsen's CD I'm Growing featuring Mozart's At the Window.  The kids were delighted with this funny song about some naughty kid, and my husband and I were delighted with the enormous improvement of musical quality in our vehicle.  It was shortly thereafter that this choral arrangement was born.

Gunnar writes: In my first music theory class in college, the teacher and the students were recalling the silly ways they'd been taught to remember classical melodies when they were young.  One of them was for Mozart's 40th symphony (which I'd never heard) which consisted of Now Mozart's at the window - Let him in, Let him in, Let him in.  What an ear-worm!  For 25 years now I've dreamt of expanding that ditty into something more substantial, and now I'm proud to present the finished piece.  I'm really going to get a kick of sending this one to my teacher!

Also available in SATB voicing

Music abridged from W. A. Mozart's Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550 IV. Allegro assai

2017 Choral Contest Entry

SKU: A0.891194

Movement two of four Cowboy Songs of the American Southwest

This fun-to sing TTBB a cappella concert arrangement set of regional folksongs are evocative of barbershop, concert, and a cappella styles and utilize some fun extended techniques in the second movement.  Also appropriate for a versatile barbershop or men's quartet, upper HS level or above.

These four cowboy songs that make up the song cycle Cowboy Songs of the American Southwest are among the nearly 3,000 field recordings recorded in the U.S. Southwest, Mexico and Spain collected by John Donald Robb over 40 year while at the University of New Mexico.  These recordings preserve many of the musical traditions of these areas, especially New Mexico and Southern Colorado, and include Native American, Hispano, Mexican and African American music, as well as railroad and cowboy songs, fiddle music and the music of festivals and fiestas.

I.  The Call of the Range- Evocative of a carefree, lone cowboy singing while strumming his ukulele.  Barbershop harmonies, similar to ukulele harmonies, suggest a personification of both the ukulele and the rangeland itself as a character in the unfolding drama of the seemingly solitary cowboy.
II. I'm Sad and I'm Lonely- Whispered syllables and whistles evoke percussion and a bowed saw in this despondent tale of unrequited love and solitude.
III. Wild Horse of the Desert- The melody fights with the downbeat to mimic the wild horse fighting against land rights and fencing.
IV. When Cockle Shells Turn Silver Bells- An overly carefree, lighthearted shrug at lost love to embrace the lone cowboy lifestyle.

Due to current restrictions of the John Donald Robb field recordings housed at the University of New Mexico, movements I. The Call of the Range and III. Wild Horse of the Desert are offered with permission and without charge with the purchase of public domain arrangements of II. I'm Sad and I'm Lonely and IV. When Cockle Shells Turn Silver Bells forming an entire song cycle.  Movements II. and IV. are also available for purchase individually.

2017 Choral Contest Entry

Laurie Betts Hughes, ASCAP | www.LaurieBettsHughes.com