Browse new unaccompanied carols with original settings of well-known texts and exciting seasonal pieces.

This carol for a cappella choir juxtaposes Latin text with a jubilee spiritual celebrating the Magi who saw the star to lead them to the newborn child. The natural rhythmic energy is amplified by syncopations added as the song progresses. 

April 2024

SSAA / TTBB unaccompanied 

3 mins

Easy – Moderately difficult

McDowall brings to life a mystical, brooding nativity text by Nicholas Dakin with dramatic octatonic melodies and parallel movement in fourths and fifths. The propulsive 6/8 metre is decorated with duplet and hemiola rhythms. The Magi was commissioned by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge and first performed for the BBC Radio 3 Epiphany Carol Service, broadcast in January 2023. 

May 2024

SSATB unaccompanied

3.5 mins

Easy – Moderately difficult

Becky McGlade has set this well-known Christmas hymn with textures both rich and restrained. Opening with a plainchant-like solo for the basses, she then weaves in harmonic styles both traditional and contemporary. The original English language hymn was based on a 19th-century English translation of Prudentius's 4th-century Latin hymn, 'Corde natus ex parentis'.

February 2024

SATB unaccompanied

Digital sheet music

4 mins

Moderately difficult

Lucy Walker's thoughtful setting of  There is no rose flows between swells of emotion and warm chromatic inflections in the Latin refrains. This piece captures the natural emphases of the text, seamlessly moving between irregular and simple metres.

April 2024

Soprano solo & SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied

3 mins

Moderately difficult

In this arrangement of the Appalachian folk carol, Mack Wilberg provides a gentle harmonization suitable for a lullaby to the Christ child. A slight sense of foreboding is introduced in the central minor section as the tenor and bass voices ask 'Have you heard about his fate?'.

April 2024

SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied

3 mins

Very Easy

Toby Young's original setting refreshes this well-known text with a masterful and memorable melody that is imbued with an indelible tenderness. Young makes use of effective textural changes and syncopation, fusing the flavour of a contemporary worship song with the structure and scoring of a traditional carol.

April 2024

SATB unaccompanied

4.5 mins

Easy

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