December Canon: SoundTrax Digital Audio Download

Burrows writes choral music that feels both accessible and substantial, a balance that works equally well in festival competition and festive concert programming. The recorded accompaniment gives your singers a clear harmonic and rhythmic anchor, which matters when you're building confidence around a new piece during limited rehearsal time.

December Canon unfolds with the layered richness of a round or canon structure, building texture as voices enter at carefully spaced intervals. The piece captures seasonal feeling through its architecture rather than obvious programmatic effects, creating a sense of accumulation and warmth that emerges gradually.

This piece works for choirs of intermediate ability and above who want repertoire suited to both winter concerts and festival competition. Directors seeking winter literature that avoids the predictable will find a secular option that maintains musical sophistication.

• Familiarize your singers with the recorded accompaniment during early rehearsals so they can lock onto the harmonic foundation before drilling parts independently.
• Shape the canon's overlapping phrases to create momentum rather than allowing each entrance to feel isolated; listen for how the combined lines interweave.
• Balance clarity with blend when voices enter at staggered moments; resist the urge to overpower earlier entries as new sections come in.

Program this as a contrasting secular anchor in a mixed winter concert, or feature it as a festival entry where musical construction and precision matter. It pairs well alongside both traditional seasonal music and contemporary choral works, offering variety without requiring thematic unity.

• Following conductor cues while maintaining awareness of canon entries and layered voice parts
• Singing independently while listening actively to overlapping melodic lines
• Sustaining intonation as harmonic density increases with each new voice entrance
• Understanding structural form through canon mechanics