Music PublicationsThe National Youth Choir of Scotland has expanded its portfolio of activities to include music publishing. Over the next few years the plan is to supply material appropriate for young singers, with imaginative texts and high quality music which will allow enjoyable music making as well as help the singer develop musically. Click below on the titles of our current publications – you will be able to see the cover, download a page of each song, and where available, listen to a short extract of a performance.
Music Tom Cunningham
NYCoS Songbookssingbronze! singsilver! singgold! The National Youth Choir of Scotland celebrates its tenth anniversary by commissioning new songs for young people to sing that reflects a structured progressive musicianship programme. Having learnt basic concepts, ideally young singers can then use what they know to read these songs themselves, identifying what is on the page using the knowledge they have. NYCoS musicianship training programme is based on the work of Hungarian composer and music education Zoltan Kodály. Kodály came to England last century, discovered a system of sol-fa which he took back to Hungary, modified and developed to facilitate effective training of young musicians in his homeland. Kodály identified a process of learning by three stages: subconscious, conscious and reinforce. Simply put, musical concepts are introduced subconsciously through games, then consciously by a teacher or choir leader. Our wish with these books is to provide material for the third part of this process - to help reinforce the concepts. The Go for Bronze level of NYCoS musicianship training programme introduces the notes of the pentatonic scale, with simple rhythms and expression marks. The Go for Silver level of NYCoS musicianship training programme introduces the notes of the diatonic scale with further rhythms and expression marks. The Go for Gold level of the NYCoS musicianship training programme introduces accidentals and more complicated rhythms and musical details. Ten composers, either Scottish or working in Scotland were asked to write three songs, one each for Bronze, Silver and Gold within the above guidelines: thus the songs utilise concepts at the level of the singer’s ability so that they can reinforce what they know helping to demystify the reading process. There are two ways to use this material. Singers in a choir following a structured musicianship training programme should be provided with the chorus score to read the material themselves. For those singers knowing about sol-fa, identifying do, the singing name of the starting note and subsequent notes, and the rhythms, the song can be learnt by the singers without too much input from a leader. Singers in a choir where material is learnt by rote can use the material in that way too. The cover illustrations are by Willie Rodger. Click here to read more about his work
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