Vancouver Chamber Choir releases new R. Murray Schafer CD

VANCOUVER, CANADA - The Vancouver Chamber Choir and Grouse Records (its publishing arm) announce the release of their latest compact disc in the Canadian Composers Series:

Imagining Incense
The Choral Music of R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 3
(Grouse Records #106)

Vancouver Chamber Choir
Jon Washburn, conductor

Contents:
Magic Songs  -  Three Hymns  -  Rain Chant
Alleluia  -  Beautiful Spanish Song  -  Imagining IncenseChant for the Winter Solstice
Three Songs from The Enchanted Forest

The Vancouver Chamber Choir and R. Murray Schafer (Canada's most outstanding contemporary composer) have a long history together, going back to 1973 when the Choir first performed and recorded one of his choral works. Since then they have given over 450 performances of 26 separate Schafer works, singing his music all over the globe.

This disc is the third in a series of three all-Schafer CDs of choral music sung by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. The first two are:

A Garden of Bells
The Choral Music of R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 1

Early choral works including Miniwanka, Epitaph for Moonlight, Snowforms, Gamelan, Sun, Fire, Felix’s Girls and A Garden of Bells.

Once on a Windy Night
The Choral Music of R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 2

Four major choral works including A Medieval Bestiary, Seventeen Haiku, Vox Naturae and Once on a Windy Night.

The new release, Imagining Incense, includes many of Schafer's choral works from 1990 to 2005. Large or small, these are mature works marked by the richness of Schafer's unique choral style. Often virtuosic in its requirements of the singers, the panorama of Schafer's choral style is evident when one listens to the 20 works from four decades which are included on these three discs.

Imagining Incense is available online , at all Vancouver Chamber Choir concerts, by email , or by phoning 604-738-6822.