Quartets+ for Church Setting?

[Chazzer69]

Hi all. I'm on a search for ensemble works for quartet through octet (maybe even up to 12 players) that would be appropriate for a church setting. I purposefully didn't use the word 'sacred' because that brings to mind old, dusty stuff and that's not what I'm looking for.

I'm more in the market for things that are more contemporary; as in written in the last 50ish(?) years, not the latest and greatest from Word Music. But probably the newer the better. Also trying to target things that are upbeat and exciting, though slow and pretty would be fine but of secondary interest. More appropriate for an anthem or some such. And it would be fine if thematically based on 'old, dusty stuff', it just needs energy and would be engaging for the audience. No rhythm section or percussion.

Somewhat challenging would be good. This is for an amateur group but the majority of the players have a relatively high skill level and I'd like to keep them engaged as well.

Kind of looking for specific suggestions and not necessarily a website to crawl around on, though happy to get a website where I could buy the suggested work.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[hyperbolica]

Geez, what color paper would you like it printed on? I find a lot of charts for different groups, and I'll tell you it rarely just gets handed to me. If you're going to find something you like, you're going to have to find it. Someone else is just going to give you stuff that they like. And your list of requirements narrows that list a little.

I know this isn't what you want, but look at Hickeys.com, musescore.com, jwpepper.com, cherryclassics.com, sheetmusicdirect.com

Here are some in our list, but I doubt you'll find any acceptable, plus we've modified all or most of these for our own needs: Gospel John, Gospel Time, Gospel Tom, Benedictus (Jenkins), Simple Gifts (Castro), Come Thou Fount (arr Wilson), Battle Hymn of the Republic (Nagle), Down In the River to Pray (Divers), Just a Closer Walk, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, When the Saints go Marching In, Hymn Tune by Philip Bliss, The Lord's Prayer, What Wondrous Love is This, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, etc. And then there are lots of classical things you can get away with in church, but that's even more dusty than Victorian hymn arrangements.

Best of luck.

[Chazzer69]

Geez, what color paper would you like it printed on? I find a lot of charts for different groups, and I'll tell you it rarely just gets handed to me. If you're going to find something you like, you're going to have to find it. Someone else is just going to give you stuff that they like. And your list of requirements narrows that list a little.

I know this isn't what you want, but look at Hickeys.com, musescore.com, jwpepper.com, cherryclassics.com, sheetmusicdirect.com

Here are some in our list, but I doubt you'll find any acceptable, plus we've modified all or most of these for our own needs: Gospel John, Gospel Time, Gospel Tom, Benedictus (Jenkins), Simple Gifts (Castro), Come Thou Fount (arr Wilson), Battle Hymn of the Republic (Nagle), Down In the River to Pray (Divers), Just a Closer Walk, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, When the Saints go Marching In, Hymn Tune by Philip Bliss, The Lord's Prayer, What Wondrous Love is This, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, etc. And then there are lots of classical things you can get away with in church, but that's even more dusty than Victorian hymn arrangements.

Best of luck.

I'm not entirely sure why you bothered to spend the time to answer the way you did. If my request irritated you in some way (and it apparently did), it might have been better to just ignore my post and move on rather than somewhat belittling me with your response. This was not, by far, the most ridiculous thing asked on this forum.

[hyperbolica]

I'm not entirely sure why you bothered to spend the time to answer the way you did. If my request irritated you in some way (and it apparently did), it might have been better to just ignore my post and move on rather than somewhat belittling me with your response. This was not, by far, the most ridiculous thing asked on this forum.

Why did you bother to waste your time asking for such a narrow subset while trying to denigrate "dusty" music? Everything we do has dusty roots, regardless how modern you think it is. You're gearing up to avoid a lot of great music just because you've got some stone in your shoe about "dusty" music. Finding new charts for "dusty" situations is mostly about being open to options that don't quite get you where you want to go and then making it your own one way or another. A lot of this kind of music often isn't even written down. Ever since church music was taken over by "praise bands", opportunities for trombone quartets and the like have become slim. Something dusty might even be considered a refreshing change.

Very often if I want something in a specific style I'll have to find something close-ish and then arrange it myself the rest of the way. You have to take the temperature of the group you're playing for. Sometimes you can get away with jazzy spirituals, sometimes not. Funk, rock? Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes something with 9th chords and syncopation in it, and sometimes not. Sometimes it's back to Easter-ish fanfares. Sometimes lush voicings of traditional tunes. If you can find me a place where you can fine tune that kind of request for charts, I'll eat a dusty shape note hymnal with a side of "praise band".

[Kingfan]

Send me a pm with an e-mail address. I might have some music for you.