In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Sheet Music Series

Galaxy Music

Galaxy Music Corporation was founded in 1930 in New York by Marshall Kernochan, a cultivated New Yorker who had a great love of classical music. Kernochan quickly surrounded himself with experienced editors, and the company took off with choral and vocal music, moving into other genres along the way. Among its first composers were Katherine K. Davis, John Work, and Douglas Moore. As the firm expanded its catalog to take a more educational focus, there were also new agreements with overseas publishers, such as Stainer & Bell of London, which gave access to the music of composers like Vaughan Williams, Delius, and Jacob. By mid-century, Galaxy composers included Ivan Galamian, George Rochberg, Alice Parker, and Donald Waxman, as well as composer and Galaxy editor Robert Ward, who would go on to write the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, The Crucible. John Kernochan, Marshall’s son, ran the company from his father’s death in 1955 until 1989, when he retired from his day job as a professor and authority on intellectual property at Columbia University Law School. At that time, he sold to E. C. Schirmer Music Company, an enterprise with similar scope and history, and the acquisition came under the name of ECS Publishing.

A Cappella Folios

Individual Folios

SSA

Displaying 1-2 of 2 items.

Philip Reed : Four Spring Songs

These texts are taken from the Kokin Wakash , a collection of Japanese waka poetry compiled from various poets in the early tenth century. They show the passing of the season from the first buds hidden beneath the snow to the last petals washing downstream. The simple melodies and clear textures attempt to capture the poets' graceful blending of vivid natural imagery and piercing emotional perception as the sights and sounds of spring are made to express the bittersweetness of our brief existence.

Composer: Philip Reed

Michael McCarthy : My Country 'Tis of Thee

The origin of the melody My Country 'Tis of Thee is not known but assumed to generate from Europe, where it is also used for the national anthem of the United Kingdom, God Save the Queen. The text for My Country 'Tis of Thee was written by Samuel Francis Smith and was given its first public performance on July 4th, 1831 at an Independence Day celebration in Boston. It was published a year later under the title America. This arrangement was performed at the Capitol for the 2017 presidential inauguration. Required to be an unaccompanied arrangement, it follows a theme and variations structure where the melody is passed throughout the choir. Due to the nature of the event, this arrangement is deliberately ceremonial in feel.Duration: 2:15

Composer: Michael McCarthy

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