Stanton’s Sheet Music is pleased to invite you to the 2012 “Stanton’s Super Session,” a day-long choral reading session of new music from a variety of publishers! Pre-registration is now open – register online, or call us at 1.800.426.8742. Check out our video below for a “sneak peek” at what we have in store!
Elementary General Music Clinic
DATE/TIME: Wednesday 8/1/2012, 9:00 am-12:30 pm
LOCATION: Franklin County Veterans Memorial
REGISTRATION FEE: $20.00
Stanton’s is excited to welcome back Greg Gilpin as our clinician for the 30th edition of our Elementary General Music Clinic. This is one of Stanton’s longest running and most successful clinics, where we showcase the best new teacher resources, song collections, games, musicals and more! We are sure that you will find materials that will keep you and your students interested throughout the year. Get your school year started on the right foot!
Stanton’s Sheet Music is pleased to announce our 19th annual Excellence in Choral Literature Clinic on Saturday, August 25, 2012! This session was designed to help you select concert and contest literature from some of choral music’s most distinguished composers, featuring the best in new music for mixed, treble, and men’s choirs at all levels of difficulty. Registration fee includes a complimentary packet of over 30 titles. Come join us to discover beautiful music and share ideas with colleagues and friends! For more information, please check out our video below, contact us by email, or call us at 1.800.426.8742.
John Jacobson Workshop
DATE/TIME: Thursday 8/2/2012, 9:00 am-4:00 pm
LOCATION: Franklin County Veterans Memorial
REGISTRATION FEE: $60.00 per teacher.
Students may attend this session for $40.00, however students WILL NOT receive a music packet/choreography DVD. Both fees include lunch.
Wear your comfy clothes and tennis shoes because you’re gonna get a workout! Recharge your battery, renew your enthusiasm and review the best new titles for show choir with the master of choreography, John Jacobson and special guest, Roger Emerson. You will receive all the music and choreography notes for 20 complete routines and a DVD of some of the titles covered in this session.
Stanton’s Sheet Music is pleased to invite you to the 2012 “Stanton’s Super Session,” a day-long choral reading session of new music from a variety of publishers! Pre-registration is now open – register online, or call us at 1.800.426.8742. Check out our video below for a “sneak peek” at what we have in store!
Stanton’s Sheet Music suggests that you send your students into summer with some of these great popular music choices for men’s choirs. Whether you’re looking for current pop, a classic rock favorite or a Broadway novelty, we’ll help you find the perfect choice for your ensemble!
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the cheeky and irreverent tune from “Monty Python’s Spamalot” will have everyone whistling along! It’s a concert change-of-pace that your guys will love to sing.
Here’s a rockin’ remake of the timeless ‘60s hit The Letter, perfect for the pop portion of your concert. “Give me a ticket for an airplane. Ain’t got time to take no fast train.” This arrangement has a kickin’ groove!
Featured in the film “The Blues Brothers,” Soul Man will still have your audience singing along. Use a live combo to create a powerhouse moment during your show!
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
Stanton’s Sheet Music suggests that you send your students into summer with some of these great popular music choices for women’s choirs. Whether you’re looking for nostalgic pop, a Broadway favorite or an a cappella showpiece, we’ll help you find the perfect choice for your ensemble!
Christina Perri’s debut single Jar of Hearts has been featured on “So You Think You Can Dance?” and “Glee.” The impassioned ballad provides a powerful, relatable moment for female singers.
Someone Like You, the pop hit by Adele is a heartfelt ballad with a gorgeous piano accompaniment. After a single voice opening, the vocal texture builds into a full-voiced emotional chorus!
The playful song Taylor the Latte Boy from Kristin Chenoweth will provide a moment of absolute delight in your next concert as it tells a story full of effervescence, humor and romantic innocence. It’s a truly charming SSA feature!
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
Stanton’s Sheet Music suggests that you send your students into summer with some of these great popular music choices for middle school choirs. Whether you’re looking for current pop, a jazz favorite or a sophisticated medley, we’ll help you find the perfect choice for your ensemble!
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” with Irving Berlin: From Rags to Ritz, a medley of Berlin’s greatest hits arranged for choir, band and strings! Includes: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Blue Skies,” “Play a Simple Melody” and “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
Chubby Checker’s dance craze hit Let’s Twist Again is now a fun 2-part choral! “We’re gonna do the twist and it goes like this…” Irresistible fun for show and concert!
Boogie down with the 1979 hit Old Time Rock & Roll in this smokin’ arrangement! One of the most popular singles of all time, it was also a classic scene in the 1983 film “Risky Business.”
From the opening strains, everyone will recognize the quicky, jazzy theme of The Pink Panther by Henry Mancini! Younger singers will beg to sing this well-crafted arrangement with “scat” lyrics!
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
Stanton’s Sheet Music suggests that you send your students into summer with some of these great popular music choices for high school mixed choirs. Whether you’re looking for current pop, a classic rock favorite or an a cappella showpiece, we’ll help you find the perfect choice for your ensemble!
The trademark ABBA song Dancing Queen from the smash hit musical “Mamma Mia!” is a great choice for both concert and show choirs. It’s full of energetic, disco fun!
A House Is Not a Home, Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s powerful ballad from “Promises, Promises” is vocally challenging and full of deep emotion. This setting offers rich rewards for concert and pop groups.
To make a positive change in the world, start with the face you see in the mirror! Michael Jackson’s pop hit Man in the Mirror makes a powerful impact through the intimacy of a cappella vocals!
Louis Armstrong’s rendition of What a Wonderful World established it as a standard among songs. The optimistic message is beautifully captured in this lush arrangement by Mark Hayes – and the optional orchestration will add incredible dimension to your performance.
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
In this “information age” of internet digital downloading and social networking, you can order and purchase music through any number of sources at any time of the day (or night), and even do it via your smart phone, so what’s the difference? Granted, Stanton’s Sheet Music has quite an internet presence due to our website and online listening library, we have a digital download site with ever increasing inventory, you can become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and, let’s face it, you’re reading our blog, so what REALLY sets us apart?
First, and foremost, almost all of our staff (including bookkeeping, receiving, shipping, etc.) are trained, degreed musicians with both performance and teaching experience. We have former band and choir directors, church musicians, former classroom teachers, private instructors and active, freelance musicians on staff. When you pick up the phone and speak with us, we’re more than just “customer service representatives.” We have studied and/or taught with much of the material that we offer, make recommendations, and have experienced many of the rewards and challenges of marching season, school musicals, budgets, booster groups, administrators, etc.
Second, and equally important, we are one resource with one location and we do it all! We are a store open to the public, not a warehouse. All of our orders whether phoned in, faxed or placed online are pulled from our in-house stock, backordered from publishers as necessary, and sent from our store. The same sales staff you speak with that takes your orders, fills your orders, responds to customer e-mail, orders our stock, puts stock away, reviews new material, processes internet orders, matches backordered items, and works with publisher representatives. Stanton’s is not divided into script-following CSR’s, order pullers in some distant warehouse, stock buyers hidden away in offices, and a billing department on another floor of the building. The same people handle your order from beginning to end and are available to answer any questions along the way.
If you haven’t worked with Stanton’s before, give us a call (1-800-426-8742), send us an e-mail, visit our website, or visit our store (we not only give music recommendations, but fantastic lunch recommendations as well). Place your next order with us and find out why we have been the ‘Sheet Music Specialists’ since 1960!
Merry Christmas Stanton’s fans! We are still open today–Dec 24th–for your last minute sheet music needs. You can browse and shop anytime on our website, and we’ll process and ship your orders on Tuesday when UPS resumes service.
Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah! Stanton’s is still open today to meet all your sheet music needs. If you need to brush up on your Hanukkah history, check out this handy parody:
Stanton’s is closed today so that all our staff can eat turkey and take naps. You can still shop online, and we’ll begin processing your orders when we re-open tomorrow.
For today, we hope you’ll enjoy this truly American holiday with the work of American composer, Aaron Copeland, and American photographer, Ansel Adams.
One of the new titles featured on our August Elementary General Music Clinic that we just love is Artie Almeida’s ”Parachutes and Ribbons and Scarves, Oh My!” from Heritage Music Press. Check out the video below of Artie leading an elementary class in one of the fun activities featured in the book:
What's the best way to review new music. LIVE! Stanton’s Sheet Music recently hosted a free “Holiday Choral Reading Session.” Stanton's provides reading session and workshop opportunities thoughout the year so that you can experience the music yourself - LIVE - as you make your decisions.
If you missed our Holiday clinic, you can check out videos of some of the songs featured on Stanton's YouTube channel, or contact Stanton’s choral department for holiday suggestions!
Ready to program your upcoming holiday concert. Stanton's suggests that you try one of these outstanding choices with your choir:
For a Medieval feel, try Gaudete!, a celebratory arrangement of a 16th-century song from the Piae Canciones. Marvelous choral writing is supported by a crisp rhythmic groove that flows throughout the piece as a natural expression of the text. Be Glad This Festive Day will bring a similar musical flavor to your middle school concert; partnered with “Deck the Hall” and possessing all the color and pageantry of a Renaissance court celebration, it's a great concert opener.
If you're looking for traditional carol arrangements, try He Is Born (with Pat-a-Pan). This tasty melding of two carol favorites creatively weaves the familiar tunes together with a hip, rhythmic groove and ostinati throughout. An absolute winner for young and developing choirs, it is sure to become a perennial staple. More mature ensembles will love the creative setting of I Saw Three Ships, featuring a cappella choir with flute on the traditional Celtic carol.
A cappella groups will excel with Have You Seen the Baby? A descending bass line is a firm foundation in the A section; B features the girls vs. the guys as a vocal stack builds in the middle; followed by a soaring descant that takes the final refrain up a notch!
Choir directors will no longer bemoan the lack of meaningful Chanukah material when they take notice of Chanukah Prayer for Children. The sheer beauty of this absolutely gorgeous, uplifting piece alone makes it destined to take its place among, and forever alter, the canon of Chanukah songs - and beyond. Original English lyrics serve as bookends to the Ma’oz Tzur prayer and lend the piece to a universally applicable theme of hope, unity, and freedom.
Looking for something lighter for your performance. Open with the exuberant Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas from “Home Alone 2,†feature a few outstanding soloists in Last Christmas, as heard on “Glee,†swing an a cappella version of Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and close with a stunningly orchestrated setting of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Check out our video below for even more quality suggestions, or contact us!
What’s the best way to review new music. LIVE!
Throughout the year, Stanton’s provides reading session and workshop opportunities for directors of all kinds, so that you can experience the music yourself – LIVE – as you make your decisions. We also encourage you to call Stanton’s highly educated staff, and speak LIVE with someone about the specific needs of your ensemble. You can even email us, and be sure that the response will be from a real, LIVE individual who knows the repertoire and can make focused recommendations for you. If, after all these person-to-person, LIVE options, you still want more–check out Stanton’s YouTube channel.
On our channel, you will find videos about the various workshops that we offer, short segments that highlight new products about which we’re especially excited, and highlights from some of our recent reading sessions. There’s even a thorough video history of Stanton’s (that was somehow passed over by “the Academy”).
We offer so many ways for you to connect with our staff and their wealth of combined knowledge, that there’s never any need to be less than confident about your music purchases. If you have other ideas/requests for content on our YouTube channel, our website or this blog, we’d love to hear from you–LIVE!
As you prepare for your first concert of the school year, Stanton's Sheet Music suggests that you consider one of these outstanding selections for your women's or men's choir:
In Farewell, My Love, soaring vocal lines and a fluid accompaniment are punctuated by unexpected chords and harmonies to illustrate love’s twists and turns in this sensitive pairing of two beloved folk tunes from Earlene Rentz. Featuring flowing phrases, independence of parts, and a partner song format, this piece is fantastic for teaching and is also appropriate for small or young ensembles.
With an electrifying piano accompaniment, James DesJardins has set Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho on fire! It works amazingly as a closing piece for your concert. Sounds harder than it is, so you're assured success at the beginning of the year.
SSA voices will shine in this touching and expressive setting of My True Love Has My Heart by Laura Farnell. Rubato and legato phrases ebb and flow over a romantic, arpeggiated accompaniment for a superb concert showcase.
This arrangement of Canto del Agua, a Venezuelan folk song, is full of life! Thoughtful part-writing and a supportive accompaniment ensure that young men's groups will excel. Add guitar and percussion for extra authenticity!
Gloria by Mark Patterson is a beautifully lyrical, yet energetically rhythmic setting of the traditional Latin text for young men. Patterson is careful with ranges, but gives both parts equally exciting and challenging lines. This will make an excellent choice for contest or festival.
Thulalila Lele is a traditional African song with text translating to: “What have we done to deserve this life and what will we have to say about it when the time comes?” This work is widely performed by Zambia’s own Zambian A Cappella Group, and sounds best when accompanied only by simple percussion such as a Djembe drum.
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
Take your middle school choir on a trip around the world - without ever leaving your classroom! Stanton's suggests these high-quality repertoire choices for your young singers this fall:
The authentic Zulu folk song Aya Ngena is a perfect fit for mixed and treble choirs in three parts. The multicultural groove of rhythmic choral parts is routinely punctuated by brief solos and joyful handclaps. Add the optional African percussion to truly enhance the experience.
Set in minor mode, Kimineero, a popular folk ballad from Nova Scotia, is a perfect choice to spice up your concert programs for young and developing choirs. Ostinati and a chorus of nonsense syllables add to the fun in this creative programming gem that is terrific for teaching diction and dynamics.
Korobushka is a famous Russian folk song that tells the story of a peddler and a girl in a spirited setting that your developing singers will love to sing! The two banter back and forth alternating with a dance-like vocal interlude. After a grand pause, the music gradually accelerates to the final breathless “Hey!” Includes Russian and English lyrics, with a pronunciation guide. (Astute listeners will also recognize this folk song as the main theme from Tetris!)
Call-and-response style writing makes the vocal parts in Pete, Pete! engaging and easy to learn, and conga drum, shaker, woodblock, and cowbell lines lend an authentic African flavor to this unique creative programming piece. A pronunciation guide, translation of the text, and program notes are included.
Sansa Kroma is an ideal choice for middle school treble choirs. The vibrant sounds of this African game song will energize your singers through layered percussion and hand claps and call-and-response vocals.
For more suggestions, check out our video below, or contact us!
