Post Pandemic Choir Cantata!

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

Okay, while 'post pandemic' may be a bit altruistic or even naive, it's kinda how it feels this year!

Please find below all the relevant audio tracks for your listening and at home/in the car rehearsing pleasure.

Thanks all, this will be a lovely Christmas offering!

 

As always, please contact me at music@washparkumc.org if there are any issues with any of these files.  (The process to upload and link them is done very 'manually' so there are lots of places where I could have goofed!)

Studio/Publisher recordings:

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

2 - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

3 - In the Bleak Midwinter

4 - There is Faint Music

5 - Carols of the Night

6 - Christmas Joy!

 

SOPRANO

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

2 - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

3 - In the Bleak Midwinter

4 - There is Faint Music

5 - Carols of the Night

6 - Christmas Joy!

ALTO

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

2 - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

3 - In the Bleak Midwinter

4 - There is Faint Music

5 - Carols of the Night

6 - Christmas Joy!

 

TENOR

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

2 - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

3 - In the Bleak Midwinter

4 - There is Faint Music

5 - Carols of the Night

6 - Christmas Joy!

 

BASS

1 - O Come to Us, Emmanuel

2 - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

3 - In the Bleak Midwinter

4 - There is Faint Music

5 - Carols of the Night

6 - Christmas Joy!

 

 

Welcome to WPUMC Cantata Choir 2019 edition!

This year we will be singing 5 of the same pieces as last year, with two new pieces. The new pieces are Come, Come Emmanuel as arranged by Joel Raney, and a little mashup of three carols called Christmas Joy, arranged by Philip Kern.  It's been a long time since I've found a Joy to the World that I really liked, and this one cures that particular dry run!

Please use these tracks as your handy-dandy-at-home-and-in-the-car-rehearsal-companion, and you'll be ready for rehearsals on Wednesday nights!

Thanks to everyone for all you do to support the Christmas Cantata, it is an honor to direct it, and a real highlight of my year!

See you real soon, Steve


Full studio tracks:
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - Come, Come Emmanuel - arr.Joel Raney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Christmas Joy - Philip Kern
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth - arr. Craig Courtney

Soprano

1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - Come, Come Emmanuel -Joel Raney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Christmas Joy  - arr. Philip Kern
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth soprano 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth soprano 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Alto
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - Come, Come Emmanuel - Joel Raney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Christmas Joy- arr.Philip Kern
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth alto 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth alto 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Tenor
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - Come, Come Emmanuel - Joel Raney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Christmas Joy - arr. Philip Kern
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth tenor 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth tenor 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Bass
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - Come, Come Emmanuel -Joel Raney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Christmas Joy- arr.Philip Kern
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth bass 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth bass 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Let There Be Peace on Earth, 2018 edition

Hello dear WPUMC Christmas singers!

Please find audio helper files for all 7 cantata pieces below.

A few notes first:
The final 2 pieces, "Mary Had a Baby" and "Let There be Peace on Earth" are both for 'full divisi' choir. Meaning, each part, at some point in the piece or for much of the piece, separates into 2 parts, soprano 1 "first soprano" and soprano 2, "second soprano", alto 1 and alto 2, etc.  First is always the higher, second is always the lower.  Since altos and sopranos do this often in our pieces I think everyone has a feeling for which part they should be.  It could be tougher for the gentlemen.  I'll say that I think Bill K and Alex F are definitely second basses, the rest of our basses are likely firsts.  Tenors?  It's anyone's game.  Tenors, why don't you plan on singing 2nd, and unless we get someone coming out of the woodwork, I'll likely have to hire a first tenor, which is not a big deal.

And a note about the parts for "Let There be Peace on Earth".  Last year Kathryn Kodo told me that there were rehearsal parts available, commercially, on Amazon.com!  So, I checked it out, and there's a singer who recorded the whole piece, every part, and released it.  So, this is a male singing all eight parts. It's a bit much at times to my ear, but I'm figuring it's better to hear someone sing the parts, rather than the "plinky-plonky" parts I've recorded for you.  If you'd prefer the old style, just scroll down to last year and you can download your part there.  I did not do 8 separate tracks last year, so if you'd like one very specific to your part, let me know and I'll record one for you.

Okay, now on to the goods!

Full studio tracks:
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - People Look East - arr. Craig Courtney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth - arr. Craig Courtney

Soprano

1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - People Look East - arr. Craig Courtney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby soprano1- arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby soprano 2- arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth soprano 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth soprano 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Alto
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - People Look East - arr. Craig Courtney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby alto 1- arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby alto 2- arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth alto 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth alto 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Tenor
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - People Look East - arr. Craig Courtney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby tenor 1- arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby tenor 2- arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth tenor 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth tenor 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Bass
1 - The Yearning - Craig Courtney
2 - People Look East - arr. Craig Courtney
3 - Hymn of Angels - Grassi
4 - There is Faint Music - Dan Forrest
5 - Songs of the Night - arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby bass 1- arr. Craig Courtney
6 - Mary had a Baby bass 2- arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth bass 1 - arr. Craig Courtney
7 - Let There be Peace on Earth bass 2 - arr. Craig Courtney

Let There Be Peace On Earth - Cantata 2017

Hello and welcome to Christmas Cantata season!

Please find links below to rehearsal recordings.  As this collection of pieces was assembled by yours truly, the audio files came from a few different sources. Mostly they are professional recorded tracks made available by the publisher.  In two cases however (World Peace Canon and No Candle Was There) there were no professional tracks available, so what I've provided here is audio from YouTube videos, neither of which are perfect, but close enough.  The World Peace Canon has sss sounds all over the place and No Candle Was There is a 4 part version, where we'll be singing a 2 part version. Other than that, I hope it will be fairly self explanatory!

I will make CDs for those of you who want them, I'll try to have some at the first rehearsals

I hope that you can take about half an hour and sit and listen through the whole set of pieces to enjoy the pieces before we start 'working' on them.  And I hope these pieces affect you as much as they've affected me!

Original Full Choir recordings
World Peace Canon
People Look East
Songs of the Angels
No Candle Was There
Carols of the Night
Sing Noel Medley
Let There Be Peace On Earth

Part specific rehearsal helpers:
Soprano
World Peace Canon
People Look East
Songs of the Angels
No Candle Was There
Carols of the Night
Sing Noel Medley
Let There Be Peace On Earth

Alto
World Peace Canon
People Look East
Songs of the Angels
No Candle Was There
Carols of the Night
Sing Noel Medley
Let There Be Peace On Earth

Tenor
World Peace Canon
People Look East
Songs of the Angels
No Candle Was There
Carols of the Night
Sing Noel Medley
Let There Be Peace On Earth

Bass
World Peace Canon
People Look East
Songs of the Angels
No Candle Was There
Carols of the Night
Sing Noel Medley
Let There Be Peace On Earth

Were You There onThat Christmas Night?

Hello all!

Please find below your part-specific rehearsal tracks.  Please use them in good health!

You can listen to all parts evenly mixed on the publisher's website here.

Soprano

1. A Great Light
2. Bethlehem
3. Never Been a Night Like This!
4. All is Well
5. Sing We Now of Christmas
6. Welcome to Our World
7. Were You There on That Christmas Night?
8. Glory to the Newborn King!

Alto

1. A Great Light
2. Bethlehem
3. Never Been a Night Like This!
4. All is Well
5. Sing We Now of Christmas
6. Welcome to Our World
7. Were You There on That Christmas Night?
8. Glory to the Newborn King!

Tenor

1. A Great Light
2. Bethlehem
3. Never Been a Night Like This!
4. All is Well
5. Sing We Now of Christmas
6. Welcome to Our World
7. Were You There on That Christmas Night?
8. Glory to the Newborn King!

Bass

1. A Great Light
2. Bethlehem
3. Never Been a Night Like This!
4. All is Well
5. Sing We Now of Christmas
6. Welcome to Our World
7. Were You There on That Christmas Night?
8. Glory to the Newborn King!

Kicking off Fall 2015

Hello all!

Welcome back to another choir season.  Super excited for this year, and so glad to be leading you in song!

Diving right into it, here are some dates I hope to sing here in the near future:

9/13 - Brethren we Have Met to Worship

9/27 - His Eye is on the Sparrow

10/22 - Wade in the Water

10/29 - Sing Children Sing!

I hope that we'll have great attendance for those Sundays.  Please make it if you can!

Look below for audio helpers.  More coming soon!

Thanks all, see you soon,

Steve



Just in time for this Sunday, here are some helper audio files for  
Brethren We Have Met to Worship:

Click here to listen to the publisher's studio version!

Here are the "Steve Bondy Special" helper tracks.  Made with real love! As a special bonus, you can hear alarms going off in the background of some of these audio tracks.  Of course I picked the day that they were testing the alarms for the new children's area downstairs to record these files!

Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass


Wade in the Water

I think this arrangement could be one of the best things we have ever sung!  Can't wait to sing this one in church!

Click here to listen to the publisher's studio version 

Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
 

Lean on Me and Ain't No Rock!

Hello All!

More audio helper files for some upcoming music.  Super excited about both of these, listen in good health!


Lean on Me

Lean on Me full choir
Lean on Me soprano
Lean on Me alto
Lean on Me tenor
Lean on Me bass



Ain't No Rock Gonna Shout for Me!

Ain't No Rock full choir
Ain't No Rock soprano
Ain't No Rock alto
Ain't No Rock tenor
Ain't No Rock bass