Music for young treble voices by Sheena Phillips

 

To purchase unpublished music please email me (sheenaphillips at gmail.com). For most scores there is a modest fee per singer for permission to copy from a licensed PDF file.

 

NEW or FEATURED

Bad Hair Day

2 part treble voices and piano

A song about how annoying life can be for teenagers

Perusal score

Written for the training choirs of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015

 

I Once Went A-Courting

Three part treble voices and piano

Words anon and by the composer 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Silver!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

deliciously post-modern and very funny”

(The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2010, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)

Orchestral version prepared by Stephen Dougherty and performed in May 2011 by NYCoS and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera

 

Long Jump

2 part treble voices and piano

A song about jumping into space

Perusal score

Audio realisation

Written for the training choirs of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015

Other performances at Illinois ACD Fall Convention 2019, Massachusetts MMEA 2020, Maine ACDA Convention 2020.

 

Niño

SA, piano

Suite based on three poems about childhood by Federico García Lorca

1. Agua ¿Donde Vas? (Water, Where are you Going?)

2. Canción Tonta (Silly Song)

3. De Casa En Casa (From House to House)

Published by Boosey & Hawkes, 2015

For sample audio, follow the link on this page

 

Ocean

Two part treble voices and piano

Suite of four pieces, written for Christopher Bell and the NYCoS National Boys Choir, 2008.

1. Blue Whale

2. Coral Reef

3. Gulls (a cappella)

4. Seascape

"In many ways the wordless Gulls (from Sheena Phillips' Ocean suite) was more musically impressive - as a sonic experience, in this reverberant acoustic, as much as an exercise."  (Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 9 April, 2008, reviewing performance by the National Boys Choir in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh)

perusal score

Six Sea Shanties

SSA, piano

Suite of six traditional shanties, written for Christopher Bell and the NYCoS National Boys Choir, 2007. Includes notes on the origin of the shanties and optional narrations.

Published by Boosey & Hawkes, 2014

Order Set 1

Order Set 2

Duration c 15 mins  

"Sheena Phillips's Sea Shanties were a novel delight"

(Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 9 April 2007, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)

 

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

SATB adult choir, children’s choir, flute doubling as piccolo, piano, string bass, percussion, narrator

Musical setting in five movements of Robert Browning’s unsettling tale of rats, enchantment, broken promises and disappearing children

Duration c. 18 minutes

perusal score

audio realisation (extract) from movement 3 (The End of the Rats)

Composed 2016

 

Zodiac

treble voices, piano

Twelve pieces inspired by the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac, based on lyrics by Edwina Towson

Work in progress (8 pieces completed)

perusal score

Five pieces performed by NYCOS Boys Choir, April 2019

 

 

OTHER TITLES

Carol

Unison treble voices and piano

Words by Jean Kenward

Quiet Christmas song about candles and kings

Published by Canasg Music

 

Charlie is my Darling

Two part treble voices and piano

18th century Scottish song 

Commissioned and first performed by the Knox Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, May 2005

 

Christ Child Lullaby

Unison voices and two octave handbell choir

Traditional Gaelic carol (in English translation)

Commissioned by San Pedro Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, Texas, for Christmas 2005

Published by Canasg Music

 

Dragon March   

Two part treble voices and piano

Words by Edwina Towson

 

Entre le Boeuf et l'Ane Gris (In the cattle stall)

Two part treble voices and piano

Traditional French Christmas carol

Commissioned by the Knox Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, 2006

Published by Canasg Music

 

Feast of Christmas

Two part treble voices and piano

Words by Jean Kenward

Lively Christmas song 

Published by Canasg Music

 

Frog Music

Three part treble voices and piano, pentatonic

Words anon and by the composer 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Bronze!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

Particularly notable [was] the multi-layered and multi-lingual Frog Music by Sheena Phillips, sung by the younger lads... ”

(The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2010, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)

 

Images 

SSA a cappella

Setting of three short medieval Japanese poems (with English translations by Kenneth Rexroth)

First performed by the Magpie Consort, Columbus, Ohio, 2006

perusal score  recording  by the Magpie Consort

 

Learning to Drive

Two part treble voices and piano

A song about playing Wii Golf, using four notes only (la, so, mi, do) 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in the book 3,4,5 . Licensed PDF or book format available.

 

Life of Adventure    

Two part treble voices and piano

Words by Peter Hill 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Bronze!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

 

Limbo Dancer's Soundsong

Two part treble voices and piano

Words by John Agard 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Silver!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

 

One Hundred Years of Recess

Unison treble voices and piano

Suite of six pieces based on playground rhymes, clapping rhymes, etc

Commissioned by Clinton Elementary School, Columbus, Ohio for the centenary of the Annex, 2004

 

Rosetta

2 part treble voices and piano

A song about the space probe

Commissioned by the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015

 

Tha Mi Sgith (I am tired) 

Two part treble voices and piano

Traditional Gaelic song 

Commissioned and first performed by the Knox County Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, May 2005

perusal score

 

The Contest of the Holly and the Ivy

Three part treble voices and piano

Words medieval English 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Gold!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

 

The Dream Maker

Two part treble voices and piano

Words by Jean Kenward 

Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Gold!). Licensed PDF or book format available.

 

The First Music

SSA, narrators, flute, percussion

Based on the book of the same name by Dylan Pritchett 

Commissioned by The Wellington School, Columbus, Ohio for the 6th grade choir, 2012

perusal score

 

Three Holiday Three-Note Songs   

Unison / two part treble voices and piano

1. See how a Rose

2. Silent Night 

3. Ruaridh the Highland reindeer

Duration c 6 mins  

Each song uses only the three notes mi so la in the vocal parts.

 

Three Soutar Songs   

Unison / two part treble voices and piano

Three poems by the Scots poet William Soutar  

First performed by the National Boys Choir of Scotland, dir. Christopher Bell, 2002

1. The Muckle Man

2. Princess Anastasia 

3. The Windmill

Published by Canasg Music

"Glorious settings"

(Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2002, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)

 

Westminster Chimes

(i) Treble voices and piano

(ii) Treble voices, piano and handbell choir 

Based on the famous Westminster Chimes of London, 2006

 

The Winter Wood

Three part treble voices and piano

Short cantata based on poetry by Jean Kenward

1. Bleak and Bare

2. Star

3. The Wheel of Winter

Commissioned by Kinderchor of Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, dir. Amy Chivington

Duration c. 10 minutes

 

 

 

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