Gathering Rounds, Volume 1, for intermediate to advanced singers (plus a few for beginners!), is a vibrant, engaging collection offering a round or canon for each week of the year featuring poetry and prose by women – some famous, some infamous, some longtime favorites, some newly discovered, all captivating – set to original music by Stacey Philipps.
Bound in a handy 6" x 9" spiral-bound book, these rounds and canons are welcoming, encouraging, flexible, musically and textually meaningful miniatures to enjoy with anywhere from a few people around a campfire to a large choir in a traditional performance space. Each song is enriched with brief program notes and an introductory biography of the poet or writer.
Gathering Rounds are great for choral warmups, icebreakers, sight-reading, processionals, recessionals, transitions, encores, sing-alongs, and just for fun. Written for two to six voices or groups for a WIDE variety of skill levels, ranges, and keys, some Gathering Rounds are easy enough for children and beginning singers, some are challenging for expert choristers, and most are in between. Each round is rated according to GIA Music's Difficulty Level Criteria from Teaching Music through Performance in Choir.
In the Portland-Metro area? Free delivery! Out of the USA? Please get in touch for shipping rates. Can't wait for the book? Want to catch a glimpse of what's inside? All twelve of the FREE Gathering Rounds that have been going out every month during this project are available both as individual downloads (see links below) or as a complete set here. Feel free to copy, share, distribute, and perform these twelve free rounds under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
A portion of the proceeds from this collection will benefit the Institute for Composer Diversity. Find out about the resources available through this excellent organization at www.composerdiversity.com.
Individual rounds available at the links below for $1 each for 8.5" x 11" digital sheet music only. Please support our mutual music-making by ordering the number of copies you will make for your ensemble. Purchase a complete book for additional materials, including program notes, biographies, and difficulty levels for each song, plus a thorough index of concepts and themes.
Song list
New Year (free!) Ephemeral Dawn Daylight and Dark Boughs Against the Sky Love is a Rainbow (free!) A Single Charm February Twilight Crocuses Daffodils In the Rain (free!) Winter Being Over Coming of the Spring Spring Song (free!) The Dew Upon Blooming Spring Lilacs Sweet May (free!) Memory Dandelions What am I Clover and Bee June Night Summer Day Sunset A Bee (free!) Hold Up a Torch Light of Truth Oread Under the Tree (free!) Pure and Strong In Summer Night (free!) On the Lawn Have Courage (free!) Waiting Change Whistle Wind Chimes/Swifts Much and Little Autumn Song The Pond The Grunchin' Witch (free!) November Night Fringed with Silver Thanksgiving Menu (free!) Gratitude Little Rain Song A December Day Winter Transformation When Christmas Comes (free!) Velvet Shoes