Paul Mealor, the composer of the Military Wives Choir’s Wherever You Are and the arrangement of Ubi Caritas for Prince William and Kate’s Royal wedding has created a special lullaby for the birth of the Royal baby.
Entitled Sleep On, the piece is a gentle lullaby for the female voice which uses a harp and strings as accompaniment. The piece is available to order now at Musicroom.com for both soprano and piano and SATB choir and piano.Click here to find out more.
Speaking to Classic FM, Mealor explained how the idea for the piece came about:
Hayley Westenra and I wanted to create a lullaby for TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child. I knew I wanted to compose a very lyrical, gentle piece and so I composed a lilting melody to begin with. Then I turned to the fabulous Irish poet and lyricist, Brendan Graham (who wrote the words to that famous hit, You Raise Me Up) for the lyrics, and he wrote THE most amazing words. Out of these beautiful words about hope and a mother’s love, I built the rest of the song.
New Zealand Soprano Hayley Westenra has recorded the piece, which can be heard in the embedded YouTube video below.
One of the leading names in modern choral music, Mealor has been described by the New York Times as, ‘the most important composer to have emerged in Welsh choral music since William Mathias’ and was the first classical composer to hold both the classical and pop chart No 1’s at the same time in December 2011 with due to the success of The Military Wives Choir and Gareth Malone’s heartfelt Christmas hit that he composed.
Watch Hayley Westenra perform Sleep On below, and order the sheet music now at Musicroom.com.
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You can also find a huge range of Hayley Westenra sheet music at Musicroom.com.