More than 10 years ago I started to discuss with colleagues at Oxford University Press the concept of a book for those smaller church choirs who didn’t always have enough singers to cover all four voice parts, and we explored a number of possibilities, such as a book for upper voices only, or a book for upper voices and a unison men’s part.
But the real area of need, we felt, was for a book that covered the variable vocal scoring eventualities that might arise from Sunday to Sunday in the smaller choir. A choir that might be happily SATB one week may become SAB when one tenor goes on holiday and the other falls ill: similarly, there may be days when the only safe option is to sing in two parts, or in unison. The choir in which I sing is such a one, and it was from this experience that the concept of ‘Flexible Anthems’ was born.
Each book follows the same basic formula, containing about 65 flexibly-scored pieces, ranging from well-known and less-well-known music of the past to brand new works by leading choral composers. All of these can be performed by a mixed choir, but the flexible arrangements enable them to be performed by a wide variety of other groups such as upper-voice choirs, choirs with few men, and unison choirs. Some are unaccompanied, but the majority have accompaniments, which are suitable for either piano or organ (with or without pedals). The Oxford Book of Flexible Anthems came out in 2007, followed by The Oxford Book of Flexible Carols in 2009. And now, published this month, is The Oxford Book of Easy Flexible Anthems.
Many choirs have used ‘Flexible Anthems’ and ‘Flexible Carols’ over the years – they are a staple diet for our choir – and so I’m really pleased to announce this new collection, The Oxford Book of Easy Flexible Anthems – over 65 anthems covering the whole of the church year and the various festivals and themes, except for Christmas.
The ‘easy’ aspect is not only in the music itself, it’s also associated with ease of learning within limited rehearsal time, with accessible keyboard accompaniments, and with a clear ‘performance note’ on the first page of each anthem highlighting the different scoring options available and saving time in assigning the voice parts to your particular group of singers. With such a wide range of composers and styles, inevitably some will be found ‘easier’ than others, but the emphasis is always on ease of performance and accessibility, without compromising on musical integrity or quality.
Almost all the anthems in the book can be sung by unison voices or as a solo, and all of them can be sung in two parts. Some add an optional third voice to this two-part texture, and many are in a traditional SATB scoring, though can, of course, be sung effectively by fewer voice parts. The week-by-week choice of anthems is also facilitated by a comprehensive index which lists the anthems by liturgical year and themes.
Compiling and editing this book was really exciting, and took up a substantial part of the last fifteen months – and I couldn’t have done it without the expert help of a number of OUP colleagues and free-lance advisers. From a very wide range of possible material, I think we have achieved a great balance – works by well-known composers such as Byrd, Tallis, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Boyce, Dyson, and Stainer rub shoulders with less-well known figures from the past such as Casciolini, Clemens, Marcello, Goss, Maunder, Simper, and de Arriaga. And of course there are many anthems and arrangements by some of the best contemporary church composers from the UK and the USA (and Norway and Canada) – too many to mention them all, but they include Malcolm Archer, Bob Chilcott, Thomas Hewitt-Jones, Edmund Jolliffe, Cecilia MacDowall, Philip Moore, Sarah Quartel, John Rutter, Will Todd, and Mack Wilberg, and also some who are relatively new to the OUP choral catalogue such as Ian Assersohn, Michael Bedford, James Davy, David Fawcett, Richard Hubbard, Russell Pascoe, Oliver Tarney, and Rebecca Groom te Velde. There’s also a fair sprinkling of anthems and arrangements of mine, and overall I think there really is something for every church choir.
You can hear a good cross-section of the contents on the still-developing companion website or on the free promotional CD that OUP have just produced. The website also includes sample pages from many of the anthems.
Although they are not all completely finalised yet, I am planning to do several workshops in which the collection will be introduced and sung: please email me for details of the person to contact if you are interested:
8 April 2017 – Taunton, Somerset (RSCM)
20 May 2017 – Wells, Somerset (MMA)
30 September 2017 – Hornchurch, Essex (RSCM)
And I shall also be attending the American Choral Directors Association conference in Minneapolis, USA (March 8-11 2017) where the book will be on display and introduced.
I can’t wait to try the book out!!