Winter: SSA Choral Octavo

Name: Winter: SSA Choral Octavo
Brand: Alfred Music
SKU: 00-46937
Price: 2.05 USD
Availability: InStock

Words by Walter de la Mare, music by Anthony Giamanco / arr. Andy Beck

Item: 00-46937

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Walter de la Mare's poem is a fantastic example of the Romantic-era imagination, and even more so when paired with this gorgeously haunting music. A delicately constructed piano accompaniment glides beneath shifting contemporary harmonies and varied choral textures, ultimately leading to a beautifully subdued ending.

Don't just read it, hear it, play along with it, and watch your students grow with it. In MakeMusic Cloud, Winter: SSA Choral Octavo comes alive with professional accompaniment, adjustable tempo, and built-in practice tools that turn solo practice into real progress.

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Series: Alfred Choral Designs

Publisher: Alfred Music

Page Count: 8

UPC: 038081535869

SKU: 00-46937

More about this title

About the Composer: Anthony Giamanco

Anthony Giamanco studied composition and music theory at Eastern Michigan University, where he worked with established figures including Dady Mehta, Mary Ida Yost, Ernest Brandon, and Anthony Iannaconne. His works for choir, piano, organ, and chamber ensembles are published through Alfred Music, Lorenz, Laudation Music, GIA, Augsburg Fortress, and Shawnee Press.

Based in South Lyon, Michigan, Giamanco currently serves as Director of Creative Arts and Worship at Shalom Lutheran Church in Pinckney, Michigan, where his compositional practice intersects directly with liturgical and congregational music needs.

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Why we love this

Giamanco's setting honors de la Mare's Romantic sensibility without retreating into pastiche. The shifting harmonies and textural variety keep the piece from feeling static, while the restrained final cadence gives singers a genuine interpretive challenge: how to shape beauty through understatement. This is a concert piece that rewards careful rehearsal and reveals new details with each performance.

What to expect

The piece unfolds with quiet introspection, its delicate piano accompaniment creating an intimate frame for the shifting vocal textures. Contemporary harmonies surprise and redirect the listener's ear, while the overall effect remains restrained and thoughtful, culminating in a beautifully restrained conclusion that lingers rather than resolves.

Who it's for

This octavo works for treble choirs seeking concert and festival repertoire that engages serious singers without requiring advanced ranges or dramatic technical demands. Conductors programming a mix of accessible contemporary and literary selections will find this a natural fit.

How to get the most out of it

Balance the piano part carefully during rehearsal. The accompaniment should enhance rather than support the voices; let the singers carry the harmonic weight while the keyboard provides gentle underpinning.
Shape each phrase to follow the natural speech rhythm of de la Mare's language. Mark where the text breathes, and let that determine your phrasing rather than squaring everything to four-bar phrases.
Explore the contemporary harmonies in sectional rehearsals first. Identify where major and minor shift unexpectedly, and drill those moments so singers find them secure rather than tentative.
Approach the subdued ending as an arrival, not a fade. The final measures need intention and focus from all parts; quietness should feel sculpted, not apologetic.

How to use it

Pair this with other poems set to music for a thematic concert, or position it as a moment of repose in a mixed program. The literary foundation and contemporary harmonic language make it equally suitable for a festival appearance or a concert focused on art song and choral-chamber work.