Angels Singing," is based on the carol "Angels We Have Heard on High." This new arrangement opens with shepherds (Tenor and Baritone soli) hearing angel voices, "o'er the mountains, guided by a Holy light." A few angels (Tenor voices) sing in the distance. The carol now shifts to full chorus. Often, the Basses portray the shepherds, and the Tenors sing as angels. The Clarinet plays a featured role, enhancing the message of the lyrics. Duration: 4:30

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

"Born in Bethlehem" is a numbers song, similar to "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Each group traveling to the Nativity, or associated with Jesus, is presented in ascending numerical order, from one to twelve. ("One for the little bitty Baby...Twelve for the Twelve Apostles") Once the complete set has been introduced, the numbers are performed in reverse order, in a frantic race (prestissimo) from twelve to one. This is an energetic song! The Clarinet plays a featured role, enhancing the message of the lyrics. For example, the phrase "Children, go where I send thee" is matched by the Clarinet scampering up a scale as children setting forth on a trip. And the next line, "How shall I send thee?" has the Clarinet/children coming back down the scale, returning home. Duration: 4:15

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

Touching the Infinite Sky is a choral adaptation (for Men's Chorus with Tenor Soloist) of the composer's solo song cycle, Songs from the High Sierra, for High Voice and Piano. The original songs were completed in 2014. The new work was commissioned by Louisiana State University for the Tiger Glee Club, which premiered the music on October 3, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The new choral adaptation employs the additional voices as an expansive background to the soloist. As the chorus joins in the accompaniment sonorities, a sense of space and depth is created, well-suited to songs about the wilderness. The chorus also shares melodic material with the soloist, in dialogue or in unison.

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

A celebration of life, unity, and music, this is a setting of a poem by the 19th-century British author John Addington Symonds (1840-1893). The text speaks of the future with hope: "A loftier race then e'er the world has known shall rise." The healing and transforming power of music is essential to this hope. "When every life shall be a song, then all the earth is a paradise." Throughout, the message is triumphant: "These things shall be! "The musical expression alternates between added-tone chords (representing building for the future) and melodic phrases for the more tender passages of the poem: "we will be gentle, brave, and strong "). Commissioned and premiered by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Duration: 3:30

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

A very popular setting of the most popular folk hymn.

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

The traditional text with spiritual roots has been adapted by the composer. With an unadorned melody set in a simple but beautiful musical language with open, transparent harmonies, this music can be sung well by groups of many different abilities and in many situations. Duration: 3:00

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

Composer: Gwyneth Walker

Adapting the text from the James Whitcomb Riley poem A Song of Singing, here is a song for men that celebrates the joy and exuberance of singing. With a fast and jazzy feel, the men sing some words but mainly they sing worldless sounds to capture the energy of the text.

Composer: Kirke Mechem

"The Friendly Beasts" portrays the animals who have protected Jesus and Mary during the birth. Each animal proudly takes its turn announcing its contribution. The donkey carried Mary "up hill and down." The dove "cooed" the Child to sleep. At the end of the song, all of the animals reappear in quick succession: donkey, cow, sheep, dove. They recount the gifts they brought to Immanuel.

The Hildegard Motets comprise a cycle of nine unaccompanied choral motets using texts by the 12th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). The texts were extracted from Hildegard's opus of more than seventy sacred poems titled Symphinia armonie celestium revelationum. Although these poems have been translated into English (more than once) and some of the translations are quite brilliant, I chose to set the original Latin texts as I felt they remained closer to Hildegard's own thoughts. The nine poems used in this cycle were selected according to their appropriateness to seasons in the Christian liturgical caldendar (thus, most of them can be sung in specific liturgical settings) and to their appropriateness to the structured plan of this cycle as well as for their sheer poetic beauty. Hildegard's poetic vocabulary was unusual and unique; she frequently used language that is not found in standard Latin liturgical texts. As with the musi

Arranger: Frank Ferko | Composer: Hildegard von Bingen

Gwyneth Walker has created a rousing a cappella arrangement of the

Composer: Gwyneth Walker