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30 years of song

CD

30 years of song / The Song Company.

  • Published by Song Company — 2014 — 2 CDs
  • Sales Availability: This item may be available to purchase from the Australian Music Centre.
    Please contact our Sales Department to confirm pricing and availability.
  • Library Availability: CD 2598 — Reference (not for loan) copy only

$POA

This item may be available to purchase from the Australian Music Centre.
Please contact our Sales Department to confirm pricing and availability.

Featured Australian works

  Work Composer PerformersDuration
In the shrubbery (1989) for SATB choir with chamber ensemble — Potentilla
Recorded/performed at: Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC, Ultimo, Sydney, on Jul 93.
Tony Bremner The Song Company 1 mins, 45 sec.
Gethsemane (2010) for 6 voices, narrator, soprano saxophone, percussion and electronica — O Prema
Recorded/performed at: Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC, Ultimo, Sydney, on Feb 11.
Gerard Brophy The Song Company 5 mins, 53 sec.
Southern Cross chants (2004) for 6 or more voices — Antares
Recorded/performed at: Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, on Oct 08.
Ross Edwards The Song Company 2 mins, 57 sec.
Australian aphorisms (2013) for six voices — Hear the bird of day
Recorded/performed at: Trackdown Studios, Sydney, on May 13.
Andrew Ford The Song Company 2 mins, 32 sec.
Pigeon and sparrow for vocal ensemble
Recorded/performed at: St Scholastica's, Glebe NSW, on Feb 08.
Elena Kats-Chernin The Song Company, Genevieve Lacey 7 mins, 4 sec.
O antiphons for vocal ensemble — O-Radix
Recorded/performed at: Q Studios, Sydney, on Sep 07.
Raffæle Marcellino The Song Company 5 mins, 34 sec.
Song of songs, op. 67 (2004) for 6 live solo voices, 12 recorded voices with pre-recorded percussion and prepared piano — Enchantment
Recorded/performed at: ABC Studios, Ultimo, Sydney, on Apr 04.
Barry Hill and Andrew Schultz The Song Company 10 mins, 42 sec.
Out there (2008) for vocal ensemble
Recorded/performed at: Trackdown Studios, Sydney, on Jan 09.
Dan Walker The Song Company, William Barton 2 mins, 41 sec.
Several Australian barbershop quartets — quartets: 2 tenors, baritone, bass — The day we found O'Reilly's chook in Mrs Boon's backyard
Recorded/performed at: Trackdown Studios, Sydney, on 2007.
Martin Wesley-Smith The Song Company 2 mins, 42 sec.
Virgin and the nightingale (1986) for SATB choir — The Anti-Nightingale Song
Recorded/performed at: Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC, Ultimo, Sydney, on Jan 93.
Gillian Whitehead The Song Company, Geoffrey Collins 5 mins, 54 sec.

Also includes: 'Virgo Prudentissima, from 'Für Kaiser und Paps't / Heinrich Isaac -- Resurrexit hodie, from 'Visitatio sepulchri' / anon. -- O Viridissima Virga / Hildegard von Bingen -- Credo in unum Deum, from B Minor Mass / JS Bach -- Wade in the water / trad. gospel -- Tenebrae factae sunt / Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa -- Bats' ultrasound / Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen -- Amorosa Pupiletta / Monteverdi -- Les Feuilles Mortes / Joseph Korma/Jacques Prevert, arr. R Peelman -- Liquor mania, from 'Six Hermits' / Hing-yan Chan -- Chuck the duck, from 'Singing in tongues' / Saidah Rastam -- Omnia vincit amor / Jacob Handl -- Qui cantum corvi / Jacob Handl -- Gaudia principim / Jacob Handl -- Ich was ein chint wolgetan / Anon. -- Night and day / Cole Porter, arr R Peelman -- Sorgi, et rischiara / Giaches de Wert -- Petite camusette / Josquin Desprez -- Bona Nox KV 561 / Mozart.

Product details

The Song Company is Australia's leading vocal ensemble, proud to celebrate 30 years of music making. Since its formation in 1984, it has provided audiences with international standard performances in the field of vocal chamber music. The group's repertoire covers vocal music from the 10th century to the present day and is unique in its stylistic diversity.

Under the leadership of Roland Peelman, Artistic Director since 1990, the six-voice ensemble has developed its style by successfully integrating serious scholarship, tonal clarity, vocal daring and unbridled performance dynamics. Over 30 years, the ensemble's schedule has grown to include a mix of national and international touring, a subscription series in cities across Australia, recording projects, education activities, and special artistic collaborations.

The Song Company remains at the forefront of contemporary vocal music and looks forward to many years of continued innovation and excellence in vocal music.

From Roland Peelman:

When Charles Colman started The Song Company in 1984, people still had collections of LPs, those lovely things in vinyl that needed turning over after 30 minutes. As a new group, our first recordings were limited to cassette tapes, something that now causes amusement, but was considered quite usual at the time. In 1991, the combination of Mozart's bicentenary and a fledging new record label called Tall Poppies prompted the group's first CD: Mozart Unexpurgated, a cheeky take on Mozart's naughtiest songs, fresh from the Viennese pubs where he spent his free time between operas. With the inimitable Geoffrey Lancaster on fortepiano, we recreated and largely improvised those inebriated and smoke-filled moments of mirth and plain nonsense.

There have been plenty of funny even hilarious moments in the recording studio since. I remember the moment when the kitchen percussion used for a Martin Wesley-Smith song crashed precisely on the last note. We remember the birds outside St Scholastica's merrily joining Genevieve Lacey's recorder fluttering. We remember the obstinate cricket in St Patrick's Manly who had to be euthanised by Ralph Lane, and the memorable sessions with didgeridoo virtuoso, William Barton after the inevitable trip to Bunnings for substitute didgs!

But when the red light goes on, the atmosphere is seriously charged and concentration is at an all-time high. Recording after all is like dealing with posterity; it will be there forever! And are we not glad that those moments with William and Genevieve and Joseph Tawadros, another of our great collaborators were captured at the right time, when it felt dangerous and adventurous?

Thirty years of adventures were never going to fit on a single CD, but two CDs, one with sacred highlights and another one with anything from the sublime to the ridiculous come a little closer and will give many people something new to enjoy as we celebrate 30 years of The Song Company. The 30th Anniversary CD set covers studio recordings as well as some live performances from Australia and overseas. Amongst the previously unreleased tracks are Heinrich Isaacs' monumental motet, Virgo Prudentissima, and Elena Kats-Chernin's Pigeon and Sparrow written for The Song Company and Genevieve Lacey, as well as the most deliciously funny barbershop quartet by our Kangaroo Valley friends, Peter and Martin Wesley-Smith: 'The Day we found O'Reilly's chook in Mrs Boon's backyard'.

This double album is an important marker and a great testimony to the range of our work and all the people who have contributed and collaborated with us.

Liner notes include notes about the Song Company, and full lyrics of all songs.


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