Cantata - Dona Nobis Pacem

By Ralph Vaughan Williams

I was glad to be able to make this purchase so easily when current choir copies were very difficult to read. This edition is clearly printed and has both fig no's and bar count. The actual piece has a vey modern feel, more like Dove or Britten than I...

suspected would come from my previous experience of Vaughan Williams, and better to sing once the music has been heard performed properly! I was also pleased to wih the postal service as it was better value for me to buy two copies and have them posted across the Atlantic than to source them locally. Sad for our UK stockists, but true!

I sang this absolutely beautiful piece in the Sydney Opera House and I cannot descibe the wonderful feeling I expierienced

The music will be passed to a piano/organ player who will develop the four part harmony I remember (inadequately) from my youth in the 1950s to be sung when a small group sings carols to elderly, house-bound or sick friends in Whangarei, New Zealand in Christmas 2008.

I SANG THIS PIECE IN COLLEGE IN 1970 AND I STILL THINK ABOUT IT. THE FEELING THAT WALT WITMAN PUTS IN THE TEXT IS ASTOUNDING WHEN COUPLED WITH VAUGHN-WILLIAMS. i AM TRYING TO GET THE TUCSON SYMPHONY AND CHORUS TO PERFORM THIS PIECE.

Ralph Vaughn Williams has succeeded in using the minor, chromatic scales in an unusual and interesting way. The piece moves with dissonance and texture to effectively express the pain and ravages of war. Bear this in mind as you first work with it. The piece is difficult to read through...

, especially if you do not have perfect pitch. Without perfect pitch, the musical tones muddy and can at times be painful for even the singers to hear. However, once the pitches are mastered, the piece is moving to the point of tears. It is especially powerful, during movement three (Reconciliation). Read Walt Whitman's poem, on which it is based, at the front of the score before attempting to sing it. The images are enough ....Peace