The NMC Songbook (4 CD boxset)

To mark its 20th Anniversary in 2009, NMC Recordings commissioned The NMC Songbook. Nearly 100 composers, ranging from the country's most highly regarded figures to the younger generation of emerging talents, each wrote a song on the theme of 'Britain', for single voice or duet and a range of accompanying instruments.

The songs are set to text chosen by the composers and cover a vast array of subjects, from lyrics by Blake and Byron and schoolbook rhymes listing the Kings and Queens of England, to extracts from a National Trust brochure, chants from the Leyton Orient terraces, a recipe for whisky, and road rage at the shopping centre Lakeside. Songs are interspersed with instrumental interludes from versions of a Galliard by Thomas Morley, arranged for the Songbook by Colin Matthews.

CLASSIC FM GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2009 · GRAMOPHONE 'RECOMMENDATION FOR MAY 2009' · BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 'CHOICE FOR MAY 2009' · MUSIC WEB 'RECORD OF THE MONTH FOR MAY 2009

"This extraordinary project confirms the robust health and endlessly varied landscape of Britain's new music"
John Adams, composer

"Unpredictable, audacious, exhilarating and continually fascinating, the Songbook is an outstanding project. A Lucullan feast for the ears" International Record Review

This recording is available on NMC Recordings (NMC D150) http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/nmc-songbook

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• contemporary
• song
• NMC
• James Bowman
• Lore Lixenberg
• Peter Maxwell Davies
• Jonathan Harvey
• Judith Weir
• Colin Matthews
• British
• Harrison Birtwistle
• music
• Kings Place

[NMCRecordings]

Yes, those quotes have been invaluable, Katie!

Thank you and see you at tomorrow's concert.

[NMCRecordings]

The music used in this vodcast is from The NMC Songbook.

1. Howard Skempton: Silence on Ullswater (Benjamin Hulett, Lucy Wakeford)

2. Stuart MacRae: The Lif of this World (Michael Chance, Antonis Hatzinikolaou)

3. Julia Simpson: Bees a-zwarmen

(Lore Lixenberg, Jonathan Powell)

4. Thomas Morley Arr. Colin Matthews: Galliard

(Iain Burnside, Andrew Ball, Lucy Wakeford, Antonis Hatzinikolaou, Jane Chapman, Owen Gunnell)

[dunctonhoney]

Yay! Go NMC! Looking forward to the concert tomorrow...

Were those the quotations I recorded?

I love that Howard Skempton

[playerpiano]

Happy Birthday NMC! What a project - the Songbook looks like it will become a real landmark for British Music.