Page 102 - Voice for Life Songbook 1

24. A song of peace and joy
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Track 24
Information
The composer of this piece, Colin Mawby (b.1936), spent his formative years at Westminster Cathedral Choir School in London. He has written many pieces for choir as well as much organ music. Mawby’s setting of Psalm 23 became extremely popular since its inclusion on Charlotte Church’s Voice of an Angel debut album. A song of peace and joy is a newly written song, commissioned for the Voice for Life Songbook.
Preparation
Ask your singers to look at the first phrase (bars 9–12) and compare this with bars 27–30. Can they spot the similarity in the melodic shapes, and also the rhythmic differences? Likewise ask them to compare bars 13–16 with bars 31–34.
Teaching the song
Start with the opening verse (which is in unison throughout) from bars 9–20.You can either demonstrate this to your singers in two-bar phrases for them to sing back, or you may like to ask your singers to sightread the melody which is based either on arpeggio patterns or stepwise movement.
When you go on to cover the next verse from bar 27, remind your singers of the differences in rhythm they spotted during your preparation time.They will need to be especially careful not to sing through the rests at the beginning of bars 27, 31 and 34. If they find this difficult, allow them to put in a sniff (or a clap) in rehearsal on the rests until they are confident with the rhythm. Make sure this doesn’t become a habit though – they need to remove the sniff (or clap) just to imagine it in their heads in performance.
Now teach the final section, covering the upper vocal part first then adding in the lower part.The harmony part is very simple, always moving either exactly in step with the upper part (so the melodic pattern is familiar) or moving by step.The entry notes at the start of each phrase often tend to be in unison with the upper part.
See if your singers can achieve a dance-like feel to this song keeping the crotchet-quaver patterns light and not singing too legato (except where the composer has marked in slurs such as bars 17 and 18).
The melody instrument part could be played on any C instrument, such as flute, violin, oboe, or descant recorder. It is also in the correct range to be played on the treble recorder. Be aware that if you ask a pupil to play this on the descant recorder, depending on their level of experience they may not have covered certain fingerings required to play the whole melody (e.g. the high B flat in bar 34).
Using the voice well
There are many words at the end of phrases in this song that end with sibilant ‘s’ or ‘c’ sounds.Your singers will need to watch you conducting very carefully at the end of phrases in particular, as well as count and listen to each other to make sure that the ends of such words are precisely together.
Musical skills and understanding
In bar 47 is the marking mp sub (short for mp subito).What does this mean? (Hint: the dynamic just before is ff) 102
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