Andliga Sanger (Spiritual Songs) August Soederman (1832 - 1876), Sweden. Born in Stockholm, Soederman was the early leader of Nationalism in Swedish music. He was an orchestral player at the Royal Theater (opera house) in Stockholm, and a composer of operetta, theater music, and especially song cycles and choral music. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and conducted the opera at Stockholm from 1862 to 1876. Listen here to his Jesu Christe, Benedictus, Virgo Glorioso and Osanna.

Ave Maria - Camille Saint_Saens (1835 - 1921), Paris, France. A composer best known for his operas and tone poems, Saint-Saens was also the organist at the Madeleine Church in Paris after attending the Paris Conservatory from age thirteen to seventeen. His Ave Maria is a little jewel, perfectly balanced and harmonious, like the rest of his music.

Ave Maria - Mark Thomas (born 1964), United States. Mr. Thomas is Director of Music/Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina. His Ave Maria was composed in 2000 for Dr. James Savage and the Cathedral Choir of St. James Cathedral, Seattle, Washington. His music has been performed throughout the U.S., at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy, in China, at the National Museum of Modern Art in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and most notably at the North American New Music Festival. He served as Music Director and Organist at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids from 1990 to 1995, and his CD of liturgical music was released in the Spring of 2005.

Aye, Galeguinos Fabian Ximeno (ca. 1595 - 1629), South America.
"Oh, Galicians! Oh, I see him! Oh, I look at him, I see him in a manger! Oh, the son of God! Oh, he came to earth in a cradle! Oh, sound the bagpipes and a thousand drumbeats! Oh, play the flutes, also the tambourines! Oh, for he smiles when I cuddle him! Oh, let us make feasts for the one born between two beasts. Oh, he came to earth for us poor sinners."

Betlehems stjarna (Star of Bethlehem) Alice Tegner (1864 - 1943) ,Sweden. Alice Tegner was a poet and composer, especially of songs for adults and children. "Shine over sea and shore, star from afar, you who in the orient were lit by the Lord. Star from Bethlehem lead us not away, but home. Children and shepherds will gladly follow you, shining star, shining star!"

Duerme Negrito (Sleep, Little Black Child) Atahualpa Yupanqui, (20/21st century), Venezuela. Mr. Yupanqui was a very popular composer in the 1960's and 1970's. His setting of this lullaby is sung all over Latin America. The text depicts the cruelty of slavery and the tremendous love of a mother for her child. Slave owners often cut off the foot of a runaway slave, so the mother wants her child to stay asleep lest he run astray and be mistaken for a runaway.

Hanacpachap cuissicuinin (Joy of Heaven), published by Perez Bocanegra, Lima, Peru in 1631. A processional hymn, Hanacpachap cuissicuinin is the first piece of polyphonic music published in the New World. In the Incan dialect Quechua, its twenty-two verses praise the Virgin, whose emblem in Peru had become a pale blue flower that grows in the Andes, the same symbol as a local pagan godess. It is an excellent example of the blending of indigenous religion with Spanish Catholicism.

I Want to Hear Your Voice Again Elizabeth Kazmierski, (20/21st century), Michigan. When she learned of the drowning death of her camp friend Brianna Nelson, the first thing Elizabeth, then age 7 years old, said was she wanted to hear her friend's voice again. "That's how she recognizes people," Elizabeth's mother explains about her daughter, who is blind. As her way of grieveing, Elizabeth wrote a piece of music about her friend Brianna. With some help from her piano teacher, Ron DiSalvio, Elizabeth's piece was performed by the Battle Creek Boychoir, Brooks Grantier Conductor, in this recording.

Jul, Jul, Stralande Jul (Yule, Yule, Radiant Yule) Gustaf Nordqvist (1886 - 1936) Sweden. "Yule, Yule, radiant Yule, Over white forests shining, Heavenly crowns with their glistening light, Every church with its arches lit bright, Carolers sining from year to year, Longing for peace and for heavenly light. Yule, Yule, radiant Yule, Over white forests shining."

Mi'kmaq Honour Song Lydia Adams, (20/21st century), Canada. Lydia was born in Nova Scotia and received her music degrees from Mt. Allison University in New Brunswick and the National Opera Studio and Royal College of Music in London, England. She has won the Sir Adrian Boult Conducting Award and is the conductor of both the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto and the Elmer Iseler Singers. The Mi'kmaq Honour Song is a chant in honor of the Creator. Featuring calls of many creatures of nature, its translation is unknown, having been orally transmitted from ancient times.

Psalm CXX (Psalm 120) Otto Olsson (1879 - 1964) Sweden. Olsson, a great Swedish composer, was educated in Stockholm and remained there his entire life. For 48 years he was organist at the Gustaf Vasa Church and taught organ and composition at the city's Conservatory for 37 years. He unabashedly maintained a Romantic style and eschewed the dissonant harmonies adopted by many composers of his day. Though conservative, his music is not hackneyed, but has authentic freshness due to his skill and creative genius. Unlike his Scandinavian predecessors, such as Grieg and Sibelius, and contemporaries, he was not greatly influenced by musical nationalism.

Rukous (Prayer) Toivo Kuula (1882 - 1918), Finland. Short-lived, Toivo Kuula is best known for his beautiful, lyric art songs and over 70 choral works, the most famous of which is his Stabat Mater and Orjan poika (Son of a Slave), both for chorus and orchestra. Kuula's music is very colorful, dramatic, and emotionally expressive through the use of complex harmonies and extreme dynamics. Born at Vaasa, on the gulf of Bothnia, Kuula was educated at the Helsinki Music Institute. He then studied with Jean Sibelius, and moved on to Bologna, Leipzig and Paris. Eventually he returned to Finland to conduct in Oulu, Helsinki and Viipuri.

Salmo 150 (Psalm 150) Ernani Aguiar, (born 1949), Brazil. Mr. Aguiar is a prominent conductor, scholar and composer working in Petropolis, Brazil. His stylistic trademarks are strong rhythmic accents and fast articulation of texts, as in the Salmo 150 you hear in this recording. Praise the Lord in His sacred places, praise Him in the firmament of His power!

Sanctus (Holy)-Jan Sandstrom (living), Sweden. Sanstrom, a young Swedish composer, teaches music in the northern city of Pitea. He became famous for his "A Short Ride on a Motorbike" for trombone and orchestra. Like many composers since 1990, he often uses "minimalistic" repetitions of spare material and acoustically enhanced clusters of pitches to create a mystic atmosphere.

Sommarsalm (The Earth Adorned) Waldemar Ahlen (1894 - 1982), Sweden. Ahlen was organist at the famous St. Jacobs Church in Stockholm. He rejected the styles and modern techniques that emerged in the twentieth century. Sommarsalm (Psalm of Summer), one of the best-known and loved pieces of Swedish music, is the closing music in many choral concerts in Sweden. It is a setting of an old folk hymn which shows his ability to craft beautiful melody and harmony. Little-known outside his country, Ahlen is the author of many books on choral singing for schools and churches.

This We Know Ron Jeffers, (20/21st century), United States. Ron is the owner/director of the eminent publishing company Earthsongs. The text of This We Know has been attributed to Chief Seattle, leader of a Native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest. However, many scholars think that it was actually written for a film. Whatever the source, it is one of the most eloquent speeches on behalf of the environment and the unity of mankind. The music was composed for the First World Symposium on Choral Music (Vienna, 1987), sponsored by the World Federation for Choral Music.

Thou Whose Harmony Is the Music of the Spheres Steven Chatman, (born 1950 [U.S.]), Canada. Mr. Chatman considers himself a Canadian composer, though he grew up in Wisconsin. Since 1976 he has taught composition and orchestration at the University of British Columbia and has been co-director of the U.B.C. Contemporary Players, one of the premiere New Music ensembles in the West. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory, and earned a doctorate at the University of Michigan. His many commissions, academic honors and prizes, and performances with world-class artists, choruses, and orchestras attest to the popularity and quality of his compositions. The text of this selection is from Robert French Levins' "Let Us Pray".

Vexilla regis prodeunt-Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924), Lucca, Italy. Puccini descended from a long line of organists in Lucca, Italy. He was declared music director and organist of San Martino Church at age five - until he was 18, his uncle would fill in! Vexilla Regis, one of his first group of compositions, is a setting of a processional hymn composed for a friend and performed in a small chapel on his estate in 1889.

Water for Manioc (Agua de mani) Luiduino Pitombeira, (born 1962), Brazil. This composer was born in the Amazonian town of Russas, Ceara', Brazil. He is now teaching at Louisiana State University, where he earned his Master of Music and PhD in composition. This selection uses many folk tunes and dances of the Tremembe' people of Almofala, Ceara', in northeastern Brazil. For more information about Mr. Pitombeira, visit his publisher's website www.cantusquercus.com.