Music for young treble voices by Sheena Phillips
To purchase unpublished music please email me (sheenaphillips at gmail.com). For most scores there is a modest fee per singer for permission to copy from a licensed PDF file.
NEW or FEATURED
Bad Hair Day
2 part treble voices and piano
A song about how annoying life can be for teenagers
Written for the training choirs of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015
I Once Went A-Courting
Three part treble voices and piano
Words anon and by the composer
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Silver!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
“deliciously post-modern and very funny”
(The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2010, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)
Orchestral version prepared by Stephen Dougherty and performed in May 2011 by NYCoS and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Long Jump
2 part treble voices and piano
A song about jumping into space
Written for the training choirs of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015
Other performances at Illinois ACD Fall Convention 2019, Massachusetts MMEA 2020, Maine ACDA Convention 2020.
SA, piano
Suite based on three poems about childhood by Federico García Lorca
1. Agua ¿Donde Vas? (Water, Where are you Going?)
2. Canción Tonta (Silly Song)
3. De Casa En Casa (From House to House)
Published by Boosey & Hawkes, 2015
For sample audio, follow the link on this page
Ocean
Two part treble voices and piano
Suite of four pieces, written for Christopher Bell and the NYCoS National Boys Choir, 2008.
1. Blue Whale
2. Coral Reef
3. Gulls (a cappella)
4. Seascape
"In many ways the wordless Gulls (from Sheena Phillips' Ocean suite) was more musically impressive - as a sonic experience, in this reverberant acoustic, as much as an exercise." (Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 9 April, 2008, reviewing performance by the National Boys Choir in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh)
Six Sea Shanties
SSA, piano
Suite of six traditional shanties, written for Christopher Bell and the NYCoS National Boys Choir, 2007. Includes notes on the origin of the shanties and optional narrations.
Published by Boosey & Hawkes, 2014
Duration c 15 mins
"Sheena Phillips's Sea Shanties were a novel delight"
(Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 9 April 2007, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)
SATB adult choir, children’s choir, flute doubling as piccolo, piano, string bass, percussion, narrator
Musical setting in five movements of Robert Browning’s unsettling tale of rats, enchantment, broken promises and disappearing children
Duration c. 18 minutes
audio realisation (extract) from movement 3 (The End of the Rats)
Composed 2016
treble voices, piano
Twelve pieces inspired by the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac, based on lyrics by Edwina Towson
Work in progress (8 pieces completed)
Five pieces performed by NYCOS Boys Choir, April 2019
OTHER TITLES
Carol
Unison treble voices and piano
Words by Jean Kenward
Quiet Christmas song about candles and kings
Published by Canasg Music
Charlie is my Darling
Two part treble voices and piano
18th century Scottish
song
Commissioned and first performed by
the Knox Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, May 2005
Christ Child Lullaby
Unison voices and two octave
handbell choir
Traditional Gaelic carol (in English
translation)
Commissioned by San Pedro
Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, Texas, for Christmas 2005
Published by Canasg Music
Dragon March
Two part treble voices and piano
Words by Edwina Towson
Entre le Boeuf et l'Ane Gris (In the cattle stall)
Two part treble voices and piano
Traditional French Christmas carol
Commissioned by the Knox Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, 2006
Published by Canasg Music
Feast of Christmas
Two part treble voices and piano
Words by Jean Kenward
Lively Christmas song
Published by Canasg Music
Frog Music
Three part treble voices and piano, pentatonic
Words anon and by the composer
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Bronze!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
“Particularly notable [was] the multi-layered and multi-lingual Frog Music by Sheena Phillips, sung by the younger lads... ”
(The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2010, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)
Images
SSA a cappella
Setting of three short medieval Japanese poems (with English translations by Kenneth Rexroth)
First performed by the Magpie Consort, Columbus, Ohio, 2006
Learning to Drive
Two part treble voices and piano
A song about playing Wii Golf, using four notes only (la, so, mi, do)
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in the book 3,4,5 . Licensed PDF or book format available.
Life of Adventure
Two part treble voices and piano
Words by Peter Hill
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Bronze!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
Limbo Dancer's Soundsong
Two part treble voices and piano
Words by John Agard
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Silver!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
One Hundred Years of Recess
Unison treble voices and piano
Suite of six pieces based on
playground rhymes, clapping rhymes, etc
Commissioned by Clinton Elementary
School, Columbus, Ohio for the centenary of the Annex, 2004
Rosetta
2 part treble voices and piano
A song about the space probe
Commissioned by the National Youth Choir of Scotland, 2015
Tha Mi Sgith (I am tired)
Two part treble voices and piano
Traditional Gaelic song
Commissioned and first performed by
the Knox County Choraliers, Ohio, dir. Diane Dingler, May 2005
The Contest of the Holly and the Ivy
Three part treble voices and piano
Words medieval English
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 2 (Sing Gold!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
The Dream Maker
Two part treble voices and piano
Words by Jean Kenward
Commissioned and published by National Youth Choir of Scotland in Songbooks 1 (Sing Gold!). Licensed PDF or book format available.
The First Music
SSA, narrators, flute, percussion
Based on the book of the same name by Dylan Pritchett
Commissioned by The Wellington School, Columbus, Ohio for the 6th grade choir, 2012
Three Holiday Three-Note Songs
Unison / two part treble voices and
piano
1. See how a Rose
2. Silent Night
3. Ruaridh the Highland reindeer
Duration c 6 mins
Each song uses only the three notes mi so la in the vocal parts.
Three Soutar Songs
Unison / two part treble voices and
piano
Three poems by the Scots poet
William Soutar
First performed by the National Boys
Choir of Scotland, dir. Christopher Bell, 2002
1. The Muckle Man
2. Princess Anastasia
3. The Windmill
Published by Canasg Music
"Glorious settings"
(Keith Bruce, Arts Editor, The Glasgow Herald, 8 April 2002, reviewing a concert by the NYCoS National Boys Choir)
Westminster Chimes
(i) Treble voices and piano
(ii) Treble voices, piano and
handbell choir
Based on the famous Westminster
Chimes of London, 2006
The Winter Wood
Three part treble voices and piano
Short cantata based on poetry by
Jean Kenward
1. Bleak and Bare
2. Star
3. The Wheel of Winter
Commissioned by Kinderchor of
Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, dir. Amy Chivington
Duration c. 10 minutes