This one simple word, Alleluia has been the inspiration for countless choral compositions. Here is a new setting by one of America's premier composers of choral music. Written for the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Craig Hella Johnson, Director for a recording of the composers music. This is accessible for good high school choirs, collegiate and professionals.

Composer: Kile Smith

Written for the 100th anniversary of the St. Olaf choir, this work is commensurate with ability of one of the great choirs in America. The music makes consistent use of divisi texture, expansive arcs of musical phrase, and coloristic harmonies that demand excellent intonation, balance, and blend - all hallmarks of the St. Olaf Choir sound.

Composer: Rene Clausen

Written for the 100th anniversary of the St. Olaf choir, this work is commensurate with ability of one of the great choirs in America. The music makes consistent use of divisi texture, expansive arcs of musical phrase, and coloristic harmonies that demand excellent intonation, balance, and blend - all hallmarks of the St. Olaf Choir sound.

Arranger: Rene Clausen | Composer: Rene Clausen

With a depth and emotional range comparable to art songs, spirituals have become a powerful and significant body of work in Western art music. This pairing of two songs displays a quality of emotional directness and a fascination with the broad palette of feelings, colors and ideas inherent in the music. Duration: ca. 6:30.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

A profoundly beautiful poem speaks of life as a series of doors opening and of sighs unfolding, one upon another, rising on a tide of mornings. The music creates a peaceful atmosphere of unfolding sonority, until it fades away in the aleatoric final phrase. Duration: ca. 4:15.

Composer: Eric William Barnum

Craig Hella Johnson's remarkable setting of verses by the poet Rabindranath Tagore creates a mesmerizing effect with music that is both ancient and modern. Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. Duration: ca. 4:30.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson | Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Craig Hella Johnson's remarkable setting of verses by the poet Rabindranath Tagore creates a mesmerizing effect with music that is both ancient and modern. Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. Duration: ca. 4:30.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Craig Hella Johnson has become well known for outside the box programming, composing and arranging. Here is another great example. This folk song written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949 in support of the Progressive movement and later made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary is here arranged with a driving motif If I Had A Hammer by SATB divisi chorus. Hand percussion underpins this motif and the melody floats above. A powerful video of this by Conspirare lives on YouTube.

Arranger: Pete Seeger | Composer: Pete Seeger | Performed By: Pete Seeger

From Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, this setting of a beloved evangelical hymn by Jonah Kliewer is both sturdy and transformational, projecting a sense of calmness and comfort. Duration: ca. 2:50.

Arranger: Jonah Kliewer

Donald Grantham has set the beautiful and descriptive Jane Kenyon poem in a serene and gentle musical pallet. With lush harmonies and much rubato within a slow tempo, this is atmospheric in its final impact.

Composer: Donald Grantham

This short unaccompanied motet celebrates the wondrous mystery of God made man with this rich setting of a traditional Latin text. Full contemporary harmonies will resound throughout your performance space supporting the serene melody. Duration: ca. 3:40.

Composer: Taylor Davis

This work for mixed chorus and semi chorus of the text from Ruth 1:16-17 and texts from Proverbs 30:18-19 and Psalm 139:6 is a rich, largely homophonic setting that expressively portrays Ruth's famous pledge. Performance time: approx. 4:35. From the Craig Hella Johnson Choral Series.

Composer: Paul Ayres

This setting of a prayer for peace from the Jewish liturgy is a fitting work for our time. Opening quietly, it builds steadily to an intense emotional outpouring, then gradually retreats to a hushed conclusion. Duration: ca. 4:45.

Composer: Daniel Kellogg

The choral ensemble creates a spare and stark vocal atmosphere with steady, pulsating vocal effects as the solo lines emerge from the texture. First Soon ah will be done and then I wanna die easy, which are then combined in a powerful collage of sonority that expresses the drama and emotion of this powerful music. Duration: ca. 5:50.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

The choral ensemble creates a spare and stark vocal atmosphere with steady, pulsating vocal effects as the solo lines emerge from the texture. First Soon ah will be done and then I wanna die easy, which are then combined in a powerful collage of sonority that expresses the drama and emotion of this powerful music. Duration: ca. 5:50.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

In this beautiful poem by Dorothy Parker, Mary knows her baby is holy simply because he is hers. She considers herself blessed whenever he reaches another birthday, without even knowing how few he has left. Celebrating Mary the mother and Christmas, Doug Brandt creates an inner voice of Mary in the altos and tenors while the outer voices create the ironic voice of both joy and heartbreak.

Composer: Doug Brandt

Moved by the horrific Orlando night club shooting in June of 2016, Ellingboe set this poem to music as an outpouring of grief, yet also of hope, that all is not lost and that, indeed, This Is A Good World. The Kenneth Patchen poem was written and published during some of the darkest days of the Second World War. It reminds us that war will not last and, though some do go mad, God will not forget us.

Composer: Bradley Ellingboe

The text by an anonymous 15th century poet is illuminated by the legato and expressive phrases of this evocative work. From the Craig Hella Johnson Choral Series. Performance Time: Approx. 6:00

Composer: Craig Carnahan

From the first intoning of the opening phrase of the text from the Hebrew Union Prayer Book, this expressive work is marked by warmth and beauty. In the rising of the sun and its going down, we remember them. In the blowing of the wind and in the chill in winter, we remember them. Duration: Approx. 3:00. Recorded by Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, conductor.

Composer: Donald Grantham

This setting of a traditional Irish blessing speaks of those who give support in times of trial with a musical tapestry of unadorned a cappella mixed chorus, using soft dissonances and free-flowing counterpoint. The occasional divisi creates a sonic wash of color and overtones. Together in song, we do not walk alone.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

This setting of a traditional Irish blessing speaks of those who give support in times of trial with a musical tapestry of unadorned a cappella mixed chorus, using soft dissonances and free-flowing counterpoint. The occasional divisi creates a sonic wash of color and overtones. Together in song, we do not walk alone.

Arranger: Dominick DiOrio | Composer: Dominick DiOrio