a song cycle for unaccompanied SATB choir

By:

• Philip Norman

Duration:

12' 00"

Instrumentation:

with optional brass and percussion interludes Brass: 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 2 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 tuba, timpani (3). Percussion (2): cymbal, suspended symbal, gong, triangle

Contents:

Eight songs: Little Jack Horner - traditional; The Evader as Plum Puller - Anne French; Eating Scared - Sam Hunt; Reading the Plum - Jenny Bornholdt; A Song about the Pie - Bill Manhire; Strictly Plumsville - David Eggleton; A Good Boy - Michele Leggott; Little Jack Horner (reprise) - traditional

Availability

• This work has a score and 2 recordings

Programme Note

“Plumsong was brilliant – I grew to adore it.” said choristers in the New Zealand National Youth Choir, which commissioned this work for SATB choir with optional brass and percussion interludes. “…the sort of commission which makes the commissioning body sigh with relief.” Evening Post 30-8-95

With brass and percussion section is duration of this work is 14’. The texts are humorous parodies written by A.K. Grant of particular NZ poets – all based on the nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner.

Text Note:

Based on texts selected from The AK Grant Anthology of New Zealand Verse written, researched, edited, compiled and favourably reviewed by A.K. Grant in The Listener, March 23 1992.

Commissioned:

Commissioned by New Zealand Choral Federation and the New Zealand National Youth Choir for performance by a combined massed choir at a Gala Concert of the inaugural NZ Festival of Youth Choirs on 26th August 1995. Funding assistance provided by the Arts Council of NZ: Toi Aotearoa (now Creative New Zealand).

• New Zealand Youth Choir

Difficulty:

Advanced

Difficulty Note:

Recommended by the composer for the Big Sing competition

Influences:

• Fairytale / folktale

Funders:

• Creative New Zealand

Related Works

Little Jack Horner

Philip Norman

Performance History

	26 Aug 1995	Performed at the New Zealand Festival of Youth Choirs; Wellington Town Hall
	05 May 2007	Performed by The Hagley Singers at the Villa Maria College Auditorium, Chirstchurch as part of a Canterbury Philharmonia concert
	27 Apr 2008	Performed by the Bay of Plenty Music School Choir conducted by Roger Stevenson at Sacred Heart Girls’ College, New Plymouth ‘The Evader as Plum Puller’ from Plumsong