Welcome to Jim Scott’s Choral Music Store! A full listing of choral works is below, available as digital download and printed octavo.
THIS MONTH’S FREE DOWNLOAD…
Jim’s New Song – “Comes the Time Again”
I’d like to share my new song for start of a worship service, or perhaps another meeting of spritual/political significance. It speaks of designing new ways of coming together in diversity and compassion, and the phrase I particulaly like, “Radical welcome.” The last line is “Burning bright, the hearth of welcome.” The verses are gentle, the refrain a little more up and rhythmic, and then a third section is a repeated, gospel-flavored chant that builds energy to come back to the final refrain. I hope you like it. Click here to download “Comes the Time Again”
Four Gospel Tunes in SAB
These arrangements can stand on their own a cappella, or could be accompanied by improvising rhythm section. More complex arrangements of these songs are in the Hymns to Jazz book. Download here: Amazing Grace – Now Let us Sing – Over My Head – This Little Light
JIM SCOTT’s CHORAL MUSIC
Choral Music available as separate octavos. (PDFs are 8 1/2″ x 11″)
Audio samples marked with an asterisk (*) are examples of the composition, but not the actual choral arrangement.
NEW!Harvest/Solstice/Holiday Package of Five Pieces – Download them together at a huge savings!Once More the Liberal Year – Solstice Carol – All Around the Child – Season of the Grateful Heart – Longest Night
Read detail or order individually below, or order the group of five here for just $75 (PDF download with permission to make 20 copies)!
SATB In a somewhat traditional carol style this is a song for the Christmas season and carries a message of rebirth and hope. The birth of a child in the dark of winter is something we all can get excited about, makes us all feel like a family and gives us faith in the future.
SATB, with optional flute/oboe obligatto. One of my first environmental anthems, this describes the water cycle and what human pollution has done. I sang it regularly with the Paul Winter Consort for years and it is recorded on the Consort’s “Concert for the Earth” (Live at the UN) – the recording here is from my “Earth, Sky, Love and Dreams” CD.
SATB This is a short (1 minute) a cappella piece, with optional piano that makes a great Prelude/opener. Words by William Schultz. It has some nice counterpoint a big climax and an nicely elusive harmonic resolution.
Solo with SATB. This is another well known Winter Consort anthem I’ve been singing for years. The samba tune by Ivan Lins has English words composed collectively by the members of the Consort and myself. In this arrangement, I put a rhythmic chant in Portuguese behind the verse. It’s a real climactic flag waver ending piece. Could be shortened for some purposes. Audience can join in the refrain. (refrain) “In a circle of friends, in a circle of sound, All our voices will blend when we touch common ground.”
The Friendly Beasts or Carol of the Animals, the French carol that starts “Jesus our brother kind and good” has a new harmonization by Jim and a latin/folklorico rhythm. Can be done with guitar and rhythm section accompaniment.
Solo with SATB It has jazzy modulating harmony, and a bit more difficult voice leading than some others. Very lush and pretty with shifting tonality. Refrain: “Harmony of harmony, I hear you sing to me, Let it wash over me, let it begin. Harmony of harmony, unfolding melody, I am your instrument, let peace begin with me.”
Solo w/SATB This Peace can be found by those who seek it despite all injustice and inequity. In fact the only way to peace is through peace – and peacemaking. In the lyric it turns out to be Peace speaking: “I am peace, and I am waiting…”
Solo w/SATB A gospel flavored song with choral accompaniment to a solo melody. The solo melody could be assigned to choral sections. The subject of the lyrics: All we learn of life through science reveals to us a mystery of a spirit that we can celebrate as sacred – holy.
Solo w/SATB A song about human connections, this has a gospel style chorus that can be repeated and built up to a big climax. The refrain: “Let all our hearts open wide, Feeling the spirit deep inside, And from within, shine your light, Bright as the day through the darkest night. Chord changes for optional rhythm section.
SATB This is a gospel flavored melody with my words adapted from a poem by Kenneth Patton that makes a good opening song for a service or a blessing for a house. Four 16 bar verses go into a repeated 4 bar vamp with a counterpoint “Let this be a house of peace” chant. Chord changes for optional rhythm section.
An easy round to a traditional melody with new words and a beautiful piano accompaniment by Jim Scott. Can also be done with guitar or other improvising chord instrument and rhythm section.
Words by John Greenleaf Whittier, music by Jim Scott is a harvest hymn that gets a treatment with a Celtic triplet rhythm and obligato instrument line that comments In the mode of Bach chorale preludes. Could have rhythm section.
SATB This short homophonic carol sounds kind of medieval/renaissance style, modal. Good with drums, tambourine, shaken bells, etc. accompaniment. Could be done a capella or with four instruments playing the four parts.
The Solo w/SATB, version is published by Roger Wagner Series / Hal Leonard. This song is the central anthem from my musical “The Tree and Me.” and it’s included in the new UU Church “Singing the Journey” Hymnbook. I hope it’s a message making a peace between science and religion. It’s one of my ecological anthems I do most often and I feel the words make a pretty profound statement. The original had 4 verses, but now I use three verses for brevity and focus. You can find all four verses with my CD “Sailing With The Moon.” (Go to Recordings and click on the CD icon to get lyrics).
This is an SATB version of a gosple-flavored song I use for closing of services /gatherings. The 8-bar intro is also an interlude between verses, and could be repeated several times after the second verse for an instrumental solo (as in the recording). This is the way I originally wrote it, without the cuts that are in the UU Hymnbook. People can still look at the hymnbook and sing along, though.
(Published by Boosey and Hawkes) SATB with optional children’s choir or solo line. This is a great opening piece, in a festive Celtic 3/2 – 6/4 rhythm. “Arise! Arise!” sounds a call to the whole range of life’s participants to raise their figurative voices in a celebration of diversity. Every voice is needed to provide the full perspective. A message of hope and optimism, and a warning that we must speak out and listen as well to all those voices of experience in order to create a just world.
(Published by Boosey and Hawkes) SATB The music is a free-flowing folk style tune, maybe Appalachian would be a close description. Written a few weeks after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the poem says we stand not only for patriotic idealism, but as citizens of a just human world and of a planet ecosystem interwoven and interdependent.
(Published by Roger Wagner series – Hal Leonard) SATB This ¾ tune in a gospel style has gotten wide use as a congregational hymn in the Unitarian Universalist Church and some other denominations. The choral arrangement adds some counterpoint and different voice parts taking the lead. In a coda section there’s a 4/4 gospel layered repeated riff that can draw in the congregation, teaching the parts on the spot. It’s syncopated and may take a little time to figure out, but once you get the feel, it’s worth it – really rousing.
SATB w/piano accompaniment. I adapted this melody from Mozart. It’s pretty and accessible. Many people have said it’s their favorite benediction/closing song.
(Published by Hal Leonard) Solo w/SATB this beautiful song by Jeremy Geffen was recorded as a solo on the original Missa Gaia by the Paul Winter Consort. I’ve made a choral accompaniment that I think helps it be even more emotionally climactic. It’s not in the Missa Gaia vocal score but available separately.
(Published by Henry Leck Choral Series – Hal Leonard) Sort of SATB – The four “universal” parts are all written in treble clef, but can be done with any combination of voices, children and/or adults. I wrote this with kids, but grown-ups like it a lot too. The three verses tell of animals in the rainforest and describe the four levels of the rainforest. Then each of the levels (ground level, understory, canopy, emergent level) gets a little motif that adds up to a four part counterpoint. It’s easy to learn and can involve audience singing along.
This choral work is by several co-composers, and I wrote three of the pieces and arranged others. All are SATB, with some optional children’s choir parts and a couple of solos. The choral score has literal piano accompaniments with chord symbols. The parts for sax, oboe, cello, guitar and rhythm section (with a larger conductor’s score) are available from Hal Leonard.I’ve enjoyed being a featured “Guest Artist – Co-composer” in many performances, and would love to be involved in future concerts with choirs. I like to sing some of the solos of course, and can be of particular help with rehearsing together the rhythm section. Please do be in touch if you’re interested.The pieces in the published vocal score:Canticle – Music by Jim Scott and Paul Winter. words by St. Francis of Assisi (the “Brother Sun Sister Moon” words) and winding up with a climactic reprise of “For the Beauty of the Earth.” (words by Pierpont, melody traditional from plain chant “Adoro te Devote”). Set to an African 12/8 rhythm.Kyrie – by Paul Halley and Paul Winter.The Beatitudes – Music by Jim Scott, words from the Book of Matthew, Solo with SATB. This is the biggest piece in the work. It starts out mystical then becomes a song-like couple of verses then builds up to a Gospel style repeated refrain that goes out rocking.Sanctus – by Paul Halley and Paul Winter.Agnus Dei – Choral piece by Jim Scott, written over an earlier instrumental piece, “Seal Eyes” by Paul Winter and Jim Scott. SATB, piano and optional trio of soprano sax, English horn, and cello.The Blue Green Hills of Earth – by Kim Oler This is a great hymn by itself. It’s in the UU Hymnbook singing the Journey in a simple song format.. Another arrangement of just the song with harmony and extra obligatto line is in the Earth and Spirit Songbook. Let Us Go Forth in Peace – reprise of the Canticle.
16 Arrangements of Popular Hymn Tunes in Jazz/Gospel/World Music Styles
These arrangments range from lush and rather challenging close harmony to bluesy gospel with some sycopated rhythms to less formal and contemporary style.
Original versions can be found in the “Singing the Living Tradition” UU Hymnbook and “Singing the Journey” Hymnbook Supplement. Several have more than one harmonization.
Included: Amazing Grace, Come and Go with Me, First Night (Auld Lang Syne), For the Beauty of the Earth, Gather the Spirit, Let This be a House of Peace, Love will Guide Us, Now Let Us Sing, One More Step, Over My Head, Spirit of Life, This Little Light of Mine, There is More Love Somewhere, Though I May Speak With Bravest Fire, Tradition Held Fast, We Gather Together.
NEW! Harvest/Solstice/Holiday Package of Five Pieces – Download them together at a huge savings! Once More the Liberal Year – Solstice Carol – All Around the Child – Season of the Grateful Heart – Longest Night