Music for upper 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To purchase unpublished music please email me (sheenaphillips at gmail.com).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
Bird Rounds
mixed or equal voices a cappella
Four rounds based on lyrics about birds by Paul Dunbar, Percy Bysse Shelley, Alfred Tennyson and William Wordsworth, with music by Beethoven, Caldara and Sheena Phillips
The rounds vary in difficulty: the first three are well within the compass of a range of choirs but Eagle is chromatic and challenging
Published by Canasg Music
Queer Faith Haiku
SSAA a cappella
Four haiku by Pat Deeney
Premiered by the Columbus Women’s Chorus, Columbus, Ohio, April 2023
recording of the premiere by CWC
Raagi Thandheera (Bringing Alms)
SSAA, drums
Devotional song by Purandara Daasa Vitthala, a key figure of South West Indian music
Arranged jointly with Smitha Vishveshwara
Premiere by Amasong Chorus, Champaign-Urbana, November, 2014
Recording by Amasong
Published by Earthsongs
Women’s voices (six parts)
Aleatoric soundscape based on the American song Shenandoah
Also available for mixed voices
recording of the SATB version by Icosa, dir. Luke Mather
1. O Lilie Fair (soprano solo, theorbo)
2. In Sweet Dream (four sopranos, soprano recorder)
Lyrics by Elizabeth Melville (c. 1578 - 1640) and Mary Sidney Herbert (1561 - 1621) respectively
Commissioned by the London ensemble Philomel, dir. Janet Oates
perusal score (In Sweet Dream starts on p.13)
recording of In Sweet Dream by Philomel, London, 2019
Scotch Snapshots
SSA a cappella
Settings of lyrics by Caroline Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766 - 1845) and anon. (probably Robert Burns (1759 - 1796))
1. Rowan Tree
2. The Laird o’ Cockpen
3. The Land o’ the Leal
performance of Rowan Tree by Juice Vocal Ensemble
Rowan Tree was selected by Juice Vocal Ensemble in a call for scores for performance in the series The Night With... curated by Matthew Whiteside, November 2018
Sea Pieces
SSA
Words by Emily Dickinson
1. My River Runs To Thee
2. As If The Sea Should Part
3. Exultation
Commissioned and first performed by
Canty of Scotland, 2002
Published by Canasg Music
Snow Ride
SSA, jingle bells, finger cymbals, clapping
Inspired by the snow scene and Christmas Eve sleigh ride in Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Composed 2016
SSAA a cappella
A choral lament for Aleppo
Original SATB version composed for the Portugese Choir Voz Nua, dir. Aoife Hiney, 2016
Premiere of the SSAA version by the National Youth Girls’ Choir, April 2018
recording of a live performance of the SATB version by echo chamber choir, directed by Sarah Latto, in the Thames Tunnel Shaft, September 2017
Published by Canasg Music
OTHER TITLES
"All Quiet Along The Potomac"
SSAA, piano, drum set
Setting of US civil war poem by Ethel Lynn Beers
Premiered by the Columbus Women’s Chorus, Ohio, 2012
perusal score recording extract (Columbus Women’s Chorus) youtube performance
Aurora of the Soul
SSAA, piano
Based on a poem about the aurora borealis by Dinah Craik
Composed 2013
perusal score audio realisation
Chinese Crane Song
SSA piano
Words by Edwina Towson
First performed by Capital
University Women’s Chorus, dir. Sandra Mathias, 2003
Published by
Canasg Music
Dancing Through Time
SSAA, viola
Three medieval English dance lyrics
Published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2015
Earth Chant
SSAA, drums
An expanded version of The Earth Is Turning, developing from stately chant to whirling dance
Composed 2012
Premiered by the Women’s Choir of St Mary’s College, Indiana, dir. Nancy Menk
Five Antiphons Honouring St Kentigern
4 soprano voices and wire-strung harp
Based on a text from the medieval office of St Kentigern
First performed by Canty (female voices of Cappella Nova), Glasgow Cathedral, January 2009
Gaol Ise Gaol I (My Love Is She)
SSAA, folk harp
Traditional Gaelic waulking (cloth-working) song from the west of Scotland
perusal score recording extract (Columbus Women’s Chorus, 2011)
Garbe Rame (Dancing with Gourds)
SSAA, flute obbligato, optional percussion
Gujarati (N W India) folk song depicting goddess Amba dancing with gourds
Published by Lorenz (also available for SATB voices)
Selected for the Women's Voices Reading Session at the 2011 Ohio Music Educators Association Convention, Cincinnati, January 2011
recording (All Ohio Women’s High School Choir, Kent State University, 2010)
recording (Columbus Women’s Chorus, Ohio, 2010)
Happy Birthday
SSAA, alto sax, piano, optional drum set
Funky arrangement of the traditional birthday song whose tune is now (as of 2015) out of copyright!
Suitable for celebrating big choir birthdays (20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, etc.)
perusal score recording extract (Columbus Women’s Chorus, 2009)
Healing River
SSAA
Arrangement of the gospel style song by Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff
First performed by Calliope Women’s
Chorus, Minnesota, dir. J Michele Edwards, 2006
Also available for SATB (see Sacred Music)
Published by Santa Barbara Music Press and now out of print but you may still find copies available through sheet music sellers. Performances can still be licensed through Hal Leonard. Please contact me for further information.
Here We Come A-Wassailing
SSAA a cappella
Arrangement of the traditional English carol
First performed by Columbus Women’s
Chorus, Ohio, December 2007
Published (with online perusal score) by
Canasg Music
Here We Stand
SSAA, piano
Commissioned in memoriam Anne Marshall Saunier (1946 - 2013) who worked tirelessly for women’s and workers’ rights in Ohio and nationally
First performed by Columbus Women’s Chorus, Ohio, May 2014
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
In Beauty May I Walk
SSAA, piano, flute obbligato
Setting of a Navajo Indian poem
Premiered by the Columbus Women’s Chorus, Ohio, November 2008
recording extract (Columbus Women’s Chorus, with Lea Pearson, flute)
Incantation
SSA
Traditional Gaelic invocation of St
Brigit
Commissioned and first performed by
Canty of Scotland, 2002
Irish Blessing
SA voices and organ
Setting of traditional Irish blessings ('May the road rise to meet you', etc)
Written for the wedding of Clare Brew and Chris Scarafile, New York, April 2009
Published (with online perusal score) by
Canasg Music
Land o' the Leal
SSAA a cappella
Arrangement of Lady Nairne’s lullaby and lament for a lost child (Scotland, 18th century)
First performed by the Columbus Women’s Chorus, May 2009
Knitting Patterns
SSAA a cappella
Three ingenious 18th century canons by Caldara and Telemann, arranged with new lyrics about - yes - knitting
Published (with online perusal scores) by Canasg Music
Love is the Softest Thing
SSA
Anonymous medieval English lyric
Love: The Whole Story
Five anonymous medieval English
lyrics
Composed for The Early Interval, and
first performed at the NOW Festival of contemporary music, Columbus, Ohio, 2003
1. Westron Wynd (Alto solo, harp,
SATB recorder consort, treble viol, bass viol)
2. Love is the Softestë Thing
(Soprano solo, two treble viols)
3. The man That I Loved Altherbest
(Alto solo, folk harp)
4. Sir John (Soprano solo, S & A
recorders, lute, bass viol)
5. O Wicket Wemen (Three female
voices, SAT crumhorns, racket)
SSA, piano
Arrangement of the World War 2 era song
by Evans and Loeb
Commissioned and first performed by Columbus Women’s Chorus, dir. Patti O’Toole, 2002
recording extract (Columbus Women’s Chorus)Full recording available on the CD Notes of Courage
Permission from Hal Leonard (copyright holder) is required to perform this song
Song of the Star Child
SSA, piano
Words by Glenn Watson, song framework by Edwina Towson
Also available for SAB, piano
Summertime
SSA, synthesizer
Based on the Medieval carols Tempus Adest Floridum and Sumer Is Icumen In
perusal score recording (Women’s Chorale, Otterbein University, Ohio
Sweet Sleep
SSAAA
Words by William Blake
Published (with online perusal score) by Canasg Music
recording by the Wisconsin State Honors Treble Choir, dir. Patti O’Toole, 2002
The Earth is Turning
SSAA, drums
Based on an anonymous chant
Composed for the Columbus Women’s Chorus, 2011
perusal score
recording (Columbus Women’s Chorus)
The Ocean SSAA, piano Suite of four pieces, with original lyrics Adapted from the original SA piano version, for the Southern
Arizona Women’s Chorus, 2012 Two Settings of Anna Akhmatova SA a cappella 1. When Nothing is Needed (1964) 2. Music (1958) In English translation by Lyn Coffin SSA piano Arrangement of the traditional Scottish song (words by Robert Burns) Written for the Women's Chorale of Otterbein University,
2009
recording of slightly older version by Otterbein Women's Chorale Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon