Festival of Lights for treble chorus & piano
In teaching both vocal and instrumental music to 5th-8th grade students, I soon became adept at arranging and composing pieces that would showcase their ranges and particular abilities. One little musical of mine, Turkeys on Strike!, was a local hit…
Well, one winter we were learning some Christmas songs in my class and one of my students reasonably asked why we sang more Christmas music than Hannukah music. I honestly replied that I was less familiar with Hannukah music, but if he had suggestions for me I would be glad to include those pieces in our class. Although my father’s family is Jewish, my mother’s family is Lutheran, with the end result being that I knew far more about Christmas than I did about Hannukah.
In any event, my student brought in a song folder from his Hebrew school and I integrated some of those selections into the class’s repertoire. But then I also chose to write a new holiday song for the students, one which involved simple counterpoint within their relatively untrained ability. Festival of Lights is that piece.
The recording below is of the Chatham College Women’s Chorus, conducted by Margaret Mehl (Pittsburgh, PA, winter, 1998).
Please note that the cost of the music is per copy required for performance.
- Instrumentation:
- treble chorus, piano
- Date completed:
- 1986
- Duration:
- ca. 3:00
- Author:
- Text by the composer
- Audio:
Festival of Lights
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