Hymns & Descants......

Discussions relating to performance, interpretation, score preparation, musica ficta etc.
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ebykm
Posts: 44
Joined: 16 Oct 2005 14:31

Hymns & Descants......

Post by ebykm »

Choir Masters & Organists, Is there a descant supplement available for English Hymnals / Hymns Ancient & Modern / Golden Bells or any books used in Anglican Church ?. What descant books you use ? or you write them ?.

All i could find was Trumpet descants, i'm looking for easy ~ medium level descants with organ scores. I got couple of descants from http://www.hymndescants.com, but didn't get enough information on traditional ones used in UK. Thanks.
mjolnir
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Posts: 254
Joined: 12 Sep 2005 14:39

Re: Hymns & Descants......

Post by mjolnir »

THere have been a number of these published over the years. As to the "traditional" ones, which one is "traditional" probably depends upon which location, and in what era one refers to. I suspect that the "traditional one" for any particular tune in any particular place is most likely to be the current incumbent Organists favorite descant for that tune. Among the notable composers of descants which come to mind are Alan Gray, C.S. Lang, and Geoffrey and Martin Shaw. There are others.

RSCM publishes a book of descants, as I recall.

ns
Kathy Tichenor
Posts: 19
Joined: 29 Sep 2007 02:20
Location: Montrose, California
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Hymns & Descants......

Post by Kathy Tichenor »

Paul Halley has written tons, via pelagos publishing. He is Anglican I have Sung many of them and all have organ accomp. not public domain however. Check it out.
bobnotts
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Joined: 11 Mar 2006 19:05
Location: UK

Post by bobnotts »

Most of the descants that I've sung when I was a treble were written by the director of music wherever I was. It seems to be a tradition in church and cathedral choirs that the director of music writes his/her own descants to add a bit of distinctiveness to the music.

For a list of all descants on CPDL, see the category: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Descants

Rob
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