Aaron Copland is best remembered for creating a truly American style of music which is full of folk influences, and melodic and harmonic simplicity. The Old American Songs incorporate folk melodies ranging from minstrel songs (The Boatmen's Dance) to hymns (Simple Gifts) to political satire (The Dodger). Originating as songs for voice and piano, these arrangements by Irving Fine for chorus were authorized by the composer, who himself further expanded the songs for voice and orchestra. "The House on the Hill" and "An Immortality" were both arranged by the recently departed Daniel Pinkham, who was a student of Copland's at Harvard.

Songlist: The Boatmen's Dance, The Dodger, Long Time Ago, Simple Gifts, I Bought Me a Cat, Help Us O Lord, Thou O Jehovah Abideth Forever, Have Mercy On Us, Sing Ye Praises To Our King, The Little Horses, Zion's Walls, The Golden Willow Tree, At the River, Ching-a-Ring Chaw, An Immortality, Las Agachadas, The House on the Hill, The Lark

This recording of North American music of the last fifty or so years includes music by a Russian, Igor Stravinsky. His origins notwithstanding, he is one of the 'grand old men' of twentieth-century American music, having become an American citizen in the early 1940s, shortly before writing his Mass for choir and double wind quintet. The recording ends with a spiritual, arranged by one of Britain's most eminent twentieth-century composers - a sort of compliment to the American tradition from the other side of the pond. The rest of the music speaks for itself, with an inimitable American accent from beginning to end. "Copland's In the beginning is a stern test for any choir in a live performance...This recording is an amazing tour de force-intonation spot-on, effortless high As from the boys and finally a B flat, all superbly delivered. This CD is well worth having for this refreshingly affirmative evocation of the Creation alone." Gramophone Magazine

Songlist: The Song of Deborah, In the Beginning, I Will Sing and Raise a Psalm, O magnum mysterium, O Deus, ego amo te, Oratio patris condren: O Jesu Vivens in Maria, Thee, God..., Psalm 67, The Dove Descending, Mass, Steal Away (from A Child of Our Time)