I’ve created this Programming Guide for Choral Directors to assist you with finding works in my catalog suited to the programming needs of your choir or vocal ensemble.

Recordings, links to perusal scores, and performances specs are included below for each piece. I hope you find this to be a helpful resource!

If you don’t see a score here that’s a perfect fit for your program—and/or you’d like to participate in the creation of new music—I hope you’ll consider commissioning me to write a new piece for you. I love collaborating with ensembles to create works that meaningfully reflect their artistic goals! If you’d like to start a conversation, please get in touch with me at nell@nellshawcohen.com.

-Nell

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Each of the following works are composed by Nell Shaw Cohen and published by Faraway Nearby (ASCAP). All scores are available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to nell@nellshawcohen.com for purchasing information.

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Program Themes

• Nature, Landscapes, and Seascapes
  • Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight
  • Crescent Meadow
  • “Transform the World with Beauty” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • It’s a Long Way
  • Sauntering Songs
  • “Further Out, Deeper In” from Sauntering Songs
  • “One Walks the Flesh Transparent” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Where There Was No Path” from Sauntering Songs
• Remarkable Women / Female Poets & Artists
  • “My First Camera” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight
  • Sauntering Songs
  • “One Walks the Flesh Transparent” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Street Haunting” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Further Out, Deeper In” from Sauntering Songs
• Walking and Wanderlust
  • It’s a Long Way
  • Sauntering Songs
  • “Further Out, Deeper In” from Sauntering Songs
  • “One Walks the Flesh Transparent” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Street Haunting” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Where There Was No Path” from Sauntering Songs
• Seasonal
  • Winter:
    • Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight
    • “Street Haunting” from Sauntering Songs
  • Spring/Summer: “Transform the World with Beauty” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • Fall: Crescent Meadow
• Inspired by Visual Art, Painting, Photography
  • Transform the World with Beauty
• Hope and Courage / Social Justice
  • It’s a Long Way
  • Sauntering Songs

Performance Difficulty

(See criteria)

•  Level 2 
  • It’s a Long Way
• Level 3
  • “My First Camera” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight
  • Crescent Meadow
  • “Further Out, Deeper In” from Sauntering Songs
  • “One Walks the Flesh Transparent” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Street Haunting” from Sauntering Songs
  • “Where There Was No Path” from Sauntering Songs
• Level 4
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • “Transform the World with Beauty” from Transform the World with Beauty
  • Sauntering Songs

Special Features

• Energetic Finales
  • “A Winter Ride” from Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight
  • “Transform the World with Beauty” from Transform the World with Beauty
• SSAA / Women’s Choir
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” from Transform the World with Beauty
• One-to-a-Part Singing
  • “Transform the World with Beauty” from Transform the World with Beauty

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Description

Commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble for virtual performance by high school and college choirs early in the COVID-19 pandemic, this piece was subsequently recorded as the title track of Skylark’s 2021 album “It’s a Long Way,” which was nominated for 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance.

Poet William Stanley Braithwaite was a self-taught African American writer, editor, and critic, celebrated for his contributions to the development of 20th century American poetry. Although published in 1904, his poem spoke powerfully to me during the early pandemic and social justice struggles of 2020.

Hear additional recordings of this work, read the full program note and text, and view its performance history here.

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Description

Commissioned by Boston Choral Ensemble, Blue Shadows, Silver Sunlight features settings of three poems on the theme of winter: “Winter Branches” by Margaret Widdemer, “A Winter Blue Jay” by Sara Teasdale, and “A Winter Ride” by Amy Lowell, all written in the early 20th century by American women. Each of these poets used vivid descriptions of winter phenomena to convey moments of profound connection to the natural world.

Read the full program note for this work and view its performance history here.

Each of these movements may be programmed separately:

Winter Branches

SATB (up to SAATTBB), 3 minutes

• Themes: Winter season, female poets, nature (trees, sky, snow, phenomena of light), comfort, hope.
• Difficulty: Level 2-3 (see criteria).

A Winter Blue Jay

SATB (up to SSAATTBB), 3 1/2 minutes

• Themes: Winter season, female poets, nature (snow, trees, birds, phenomena of light), playfulness, joy.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

A Winter Ride

SATB (up to SSAATBB), 2 1/2 minutes

• Themes: Winter season, female poets, nature (snow, horseback riding, phenomena of light), playfulness, joy.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

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Description

Transform the World with Beauty, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble, is inspired by the flowering of visual art and poetry in Victorian Britain during the 1840s-1870s.

Read the full program note for this work and view its performance history here.

Each of these movements may be programmed separately:

My First Camera

SSATBB with solos for soprano and tenor, 3 1/2 minutes

• Themes: Female artists, remarkable women, photography, visual art, Victorian Britain, spirituality.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

In an Artist’s Studio

SSAA with solos for soprano and alto, 3 minutes

• Themes:  Female poets, feminist perspectives, painting, visual art, Victorian Britain.
• Difficulty: Level 4 (see criteria).

Transform the World with Beauty

SSAATTBB with solo divisi up to 12 parts, 4 1/2 minutes

• Themes: Visual art, Victorian Britain, Arts & Crafts movement, wallpaper and textile design, philosophy.
• Difficulty: Level 4 (see criteria).

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Description

A love letter to wanderlust, this concert-length cantata commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble weaves together art songs, choral music, and literature into an expansive cantata on the theme of walking. From Walt Whitman to the present day, Sauntering Songs celebrates diverse characters who search for freedom and fulfillment through subversive journeys on foot.

Read the full program note for this work here and view its performance history here.

The following choral selections may be programmed separately:

Further Out, Deeper In

SATB, 4 minutes

• Themes: Walking, wanderlust, landscapes, nature, spirituality.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

My lyrics for this piece were inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s essay “The Blue of Distance,” Robert Macfarlane’s book “The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot,” and my own emotional and spiritual responses to walking through landscapes.

VIEW THE PERUSAL SCORE

One Walks the Flesh Transparent

SSATBB, 4 minutes

• Themes: Walking, wanderlust, landscapes, nature, spirituality, female writers, literature.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

The text for this piece comes from Nan Shepherd’s “The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland,” written in the 1940s and later published in the ’70s. This memoir is a landmark work of nature writing—a philosophical meditation on the author’s journeys into the Scottish wilderness—and one of my personal favorite books.

VIEW THE PERUSAL SCORE

Street Haunting

SSAATTBB, 3 1/2 minutes

• Themes: Walking, wanderlust, cityscapes, female writers, literature.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

The text for this piece comes from a 1927 essay of the same title by Virginia Woolf, who vividly describes the pleasures of exploring and people-watching on the streets of London.

VIEW THE PERUSAL SCORE

Where There Was No Path

SATB (brief SSATB), 3 minutes

• Themes: Walking, wanderlust, landscapes, nature, trespassing, literature.
• Difficulty: Level 3 (see criteria).

This piece is a setting of the poem “Trespass” by 19th century Romantic poet John Clare. Clare was a defender of public access to the land, and poems such as this were his response to the “enclosure” acts of Britain that gave wealthy landowners the right to fence off the countryside and exclude the working class from access.

VIEW THE PERUSAL SCORE

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Description

A choral setting of text adapted from an essay by John Muir about Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park.

View this work’s performance history here.

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Visit the List of Works page to peruse more works for voice, chamber ensembles, large ensembles, and multimedia.

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Difficulty Level Criteria

The following levels are adapted from “Teaching Music through Performance in Choir” (2005, GIA). At this time, all of the works in my catalog are rated Level 2, 3, or 4. None of my works feature all of the technical challenges listed here, but these levels offer a guideline for certain features that may be encountered in a work.

	VOCAL	TONAL/RHYTHMIC
1	Short, simple vocal lines with limited ranges Conjunct vocal lines prevail Comfortable vocal range Manageable tessitura	Major or minor tonality with little or no chromaticism No modulation to other keys or tonalities Straightforward rhythms within simple or compound meter
2	Phrases of moderately challenging length Slightly disjunct vocal lines Brief, yet negotiable forays into extreme ranges Basic dynamic range	Major or minor tonality with brief, obvious chromaticism Brief modulations are obvious and move to closely related keys Modal passages Dissonances are approached and resolved by step Short passages of challenging rhythm within simple or compound metric structure
3	Short passages requiring advanced vocal technique Some passages of challenging tessitura Long phrases requiring good breath control Vocal melismas of moderate length Wide dynamic range Extended crescendos and decrescendos	Major or minor tonality Concrete or implied modulations to different tonalities Dissonance approached by leap Added note harmonies Imitative and non-imitative counterpoint Difficulty rhythms may occur, but are usually repetitive Simply constructed mixed meter
4	Long phrases requiring excellent breath control Extreme ranges Vocal lines requiring subtlety of shape, dynamics, and expressivity Long vocal melismas Alternative vocal techniques	Extended modal passages Passages in non-diatonic harmony Frequent chromaticism Challenging rhythmic passages may be extended and non-repetitive Full compositions in mixed meter
5	Vocal maturity required Extreme ranges required Repertoire at this level will provide numerous challenges for the experienced choral ensemble	Atonal passage or passages of extreme dissonance Unprepared/unresolved dissonance harmonies Very complex rhythmic/metric structure Repertoire at this level will provide numerous challenges for the experienced choral ensemble