A song a day for a month. I’ll choose them for a variety of reasons, but they’ll all be excellent, and there’ll be at least one recording to share. All links are in italics – click on them to take you to more recordings or blogs.

1. The Swing
Musical Characteristics: It’s very lively; it’s in a variety of time signatures; it’s for 2-part choir; it flies up and swoops low; it’s short.
Performances: Yes. Quite a few. Three that spring to mind: Auckland University Singers; Toronto Children’s Chorus; Saints Alive.
Related Songs: It was composed as part of a group of five for upper voices, setting texts by Robert Louis Stevenson. Others in the set are Marching Song; From A Railway Carriage; The Moon; My Bed Is A Boat
Other Information: It’s one of Jamie’s favourites, and when I asked him which one I should start with for my February songs, this is what he suggested. You can find more about the song here!

2. Knit Me Together
Musical characteristics: It’s thoughtful; it has flowing melodies; accompaniment patterns weave (or knit) together; it’s a setting of part of Psalm 139
Performances: Yes. One in December 2024, and one upcoming in April 2025
Related songs: other sacred songs – Cantate Domino, Laetentur Caeli; other flowing-along melodies – The Lamb, Lullaby Of Silences.
Other information: It was composed for my friend Richard Evans in memory of his wife, and my friend, Carol. There’s a lot more information here.

3. David Of The White Rock
Musical Characteristics: It’s a beautiful Welsh folk song, which flows along, which has yearning leaps in the melody. I’ve made several arrangements of it over the years.
Performances: My arrangement for bass singer, flute and piano was performed at a Schools Chamber Music competition in New Zealand in the 1990s, and features some startling interjections especially in the flute part, intended to express the distress at David’s imminent death. My somewhat gentler arrangement for SATB choir was performed by The Bridge Singers in 2023. There’s also an arrangement for TTBB choir which is now in the repertoire of Lionheart Harmony.
Related Songs: This is one of several arrangements of Welsh folk songs I’ve made. You can read about and hear them here.
Other information: This is a song that I’ve loved since I was a child, and I used to sit at the piano and sing it to myself, so I’m pleased to have introduced it to lots more groups over the years. I should add that my arrangement for recorder ensemble won a prize from a recorder society in New Zealand in the 1990s. They performed it at their annual meeting. I was told later that if they’d played it before they made their decision, I would not have won!!!

4. The Song The Singing Tortoise Sang
Musical Characteristics: It’s a lively song for children; it can be sung unaccompanied or with the backing track on the video below.
Performances: I’ve used it with lots of classes ( Early Years up to Year 4) in lots of schools, and I’ve heard stories from a number of other teachers who have taught it to their classes with the help of the video below.
Related songs: I Like To Say Hello; Zebra Zig Zag; I’m Scared To Skip. These three songs were all composed for 3-7 year olds, are all lively and are all very popular. Here’s a playlist of more songs for EYFS and KS1.
Other Information: The song was requested by a Year 2 teacher in Australia for her class to learn. One of them was being picked on for being “different”. She was designing a “self-esteem” unit for them. It has proven very popular in all sorts of schools in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

5. An Hour Before The Dawn
Musical Characteristics: the melodies flow along; the harmonies are sort-of jazzy; there is a sort-of walking bass, counter-melody; it’s thoughtful;
Performances: Not yet. The recording was made by me and Jamie during the lockdowns. The Bridge Singers started learning a choral version of it, but we ran out of time for the intended performance.
Related Songs: Earthbound (another lockdown song with a similar feel); Autumn Sea (another song about the ocean); Blah-De-Blah-De-Blah, Papa-Moose! (another song with a prominent bass-line).
Other Information: I wrote this song for my friends Julie and Shirley, and it is inspired by walks along Ross Bank Sands in Northumberland, and the gathering of seals you aften find at the northern end of the beach.

6. Motu Puketutu (Lyrics in Maori by Robyn Trinick)
Musical Characteristics: It has three sections – the first and third have a steady beat with repeating patterns with voice or actual percussion. The middle section has a free-flowing melody with held chords as accompaniment
Performances: Yes. Lots…for example, Key Cygentures in Copenhagen, 2008; vocal concertisten in Potsdam, Germany, 1999; Luminata Voices in Auckland and on Radio New Zealand Concert, 2022.
Related songs: Manukau (also with lyrics by Robyn Trinick, and composed at the same time as Motu Puketutu); Hinemoa (an arrangement by me of a song by Kingi Tahiwi); Tiny, Temporary Pop Up Puddles (a song with voice percussion)
Other information: I first composed this song in the early 199os when I was Composer-In-Schools for the New Zealand Arts Council. It was written for a primary school, Mangere Bridge School in Auckland (the school is situated near Puketutu Island, which was polluted at the time) and the first performance was given by them at the Auckland College Of Education. I later made two arrangements of the work for choir. Today is February 6th – Waitangi Day in New Zealand. While I was looking for details of some of these performances, I found another in Idaho in April 2022. This link gives a great programme note about this song from that performance.

7. Red, Red Rose
Musical Characteristics: It has a three part texture; it has a flowing melody; it has a flexible pulse which follows the rhythms of the words; the song begins with a slightly tentative feeling and becomes more ceratin as it goes along.
Performances: Yes. A few, including Vocarmony in Dunedin (1990s); Kantos in Manchester (2020); The Bridge Singers in Northumberland (2018)
Related Songs: Loud Blaw The Frosty Breezes (another setting of a Robert Burns poem); My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose (an arrangement of the traditional melody to this poem); Banana Fanfare 1 (another song composed for Vocarmony)
Other Information: This song was composed for Vocarmony who were the elite school choir at Queens’ High School in Dunedin, a Girls’ High School, since then I have been asked for a 3-part male voice choir version. You can hear a bit of that version here:

8. Magical Glass
Musical Characteristics: It’s lively; it’s a folk song in 6/8 time.
Performances: Yes – several, especially by The Bridge Singers, but I’ve heard of others.
Related songs: Maggie’s Rant (another lively folk song about N.E industry); Chantry Chapel Carol (also a lively song performed often by The Bridge Singers); Quiet Window (another song about beautiful glass).
Other Information: This song was originally composed for Grangetown Primary School in Sunderland about their local glass industry. I re-wrote the lyrics to suit the local links to glass-making in Felton and Thirston, Northumberland to suit the local area of The Bridge Singers.

9. Ar Gyfer Heddiw’r Bore by David Hughes
Musical Characteristics: It’s a beautiful Welsh song from the Plygain tradition. This arrangement gives prominence at different times to different sections of the choir.
Performances: Yes. This arrangement was made for The Bridge Singers and they have performed it several times.
Related Songs: David Of The White Rock (another arrangement of a Welsh folk song); St. John Vianney’s School Song (another video with photos by Michael Camm); The Dove (another Welsh Folk song arranged for choir)
Other Information: Today is my brother’s birthday and he lives in Wales and took all the photos in this video. This is why I share this beautiful song today. The Bridge Singers did a whole concert of Welsh music on St. David’s Day 2023, including this one. You can find out more information about those arrangements here.

10. Our School Is Like The Taj Mahal
Musical Characteristics: It’s a single line song with accompaniment, if you like; it’s short; it’s good for assemblies; it’s reasonably straightforward to sing although it does have some changes in time signature, which some teachers find tricky. Children don’t!
Performances: Lots, especially at Grangetown Primary School in Sunderland, but I’ve heard of other schools adapting the lyrics to suit their locality.
Related Songs: St. John Vianney’s School Song (another school song); Maggie’s Rant (another song about Sunderland); The Lamb (another song first performed by Grangetown Primary School)
Other Information: This song was composed for the opening of the new school buildings at Grangetown Primary School in Sunderland and was initially part of a larger celebration where the new school was compared to other famous buildings. For a couple of years at least, it became the school song and was sung at every occasion including weekly assemblies. I left the school, headteachers changed, the song fell out of favour. You can read more about this song and that first event here.

11. Pierced Hemisphere
Musical Characteristics: It’s reflective; it uses voices and percussion sounds, and also some glass-and-stone-produced sounds; it also has a flugel horn part which is played on a cornet in this recording; it is initially fragmentary and the texture becomes more coherent and connected.
Performances: The song was commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield to be a recording that visually impaired visitors could use to help them “see” Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture, Pierced Hemisphere. I know that it has been used by several visitors, and I did indeed run a workshop where it was tested out, and feedback was positive. I’m not aware of any live performances – this could be your chance to present a world premiere!
Related Songs: Quiet Window (a song using glass sounds accompanying a choir); Hepworth Wakefield: She’s Collected Circles (a song about other art works in the same gallery); Tiny Temporary Pop-Up Puddles (another fragmentary song with some percussion sounds interspersed).
Other Information: You can find out much more information about this song (including the poem which makes up the lyrics) here!

12. Buffalo Stories
Musical Characteristics: It’s like two songs in one really, a lullaby and a shanty. The shanty has a steady beat and a jaunty tempo. The phrases are different lengths, and there is some spiky accompaniment, but the steady beat remains throughout. The lullaby has a regular, but uneven beat, and is slower in tempo, reflecting perhaps, the rolling of the ship and the quieter ambience on board at night. The shanty and lullaby verses alternate. Both songs could be sung a s a single line song, but on this recording there are harmonies too.
Performances: The song was designed to be played as part of the video below as part of Reunion activities for some of the descendants of HMS Buffalo, which arrived in South Australia from England in 1837. The reunion was in 2024.
Related Songs: When I Was A Pilot (another shanty – this time for a helicopter pilot); Lullaby of Robert Landreth (another tale of emigrants from Britain); Pigeon Hands (another lullaby relating to creatures).
Other Information: You can read much more about this song here. Then reason why I’ve chosen this as today’s song is that overnight it has been listened to lots of times, and there’s been cheering feedback from other descendants of those travellers on HMS Buffalo.

13. Robinson Crusoe
Musical Characteristics: It’s a tuneful song with simple accompaniment and optional part-singing opportunities. It was composed for a primary school class/choir.
Performances: Lots. I have used it a lot myself, in schools I’ve worked in, but it has also been performed by others, I’ve heard, and the score has been purchased several times. It’s part of my Sea Pie Parcel song book. This is a book of 20 songs for primary school choirs or classes, all of which could be sung in unison, and all of which have optional part-singing.
Related Songs: Slow Down! Red Squirrels!; Rain; The Lamb. These are all songs from the Sea Pie Parcel song book, and have all been exceedingly popular. No-Umbrella Blues is also in the collection and was written for the same class.
Other Information: This song was first composed as part of a book week project in a Year 7 class in Brisbane. I was going through an umbrella-song phase at the time and was delighted to find that the hero of the story made an umbrella to protect himself from the sun! That’s in the song! You can find out more about the Sea Pie Parcel Collection of songs here.

14. I’d Like A Zebra For My Birthday
Musical Characteristics: It’s a short, clip-cloppy round. It’s easy to sing.
Performances: Lots. When I worked in Australia, we used to sing it for children’s birthdays and as I worked with the whole school, that was a lot of birthdays!
Related Songs: Other rounds include: Pigeon Hands; Push The Boats Out; Even A Subdued Sky I’ve written lots of rounds in fact. Here are twelve of the best (as of 2019 -there have been more since then!)
Other Information: I wrote it for Jamie. Someone else once wrote to me, “Love it!!! I want to ride a zebra through the streets and have everyone look! TY Cheryl!! … I’m still clip clopping around the streets on that bloody Zebra!! It’s been an ear worm for 2 days!!”

15. In The Teeth Of It
Musical Characteristics: It’s a concerto for marimba and strings. It’s in three movements: the first has a steady tempo and contrasts chordal patterns with running semiquavers in alternating sections; the second is slow with a soaring melody in both marimba and strings; the third is a rushing-about, rollicking race to the end with a brief stop for a cadenza-like series of flourishes and silences.
Performances: Yes: Auckland; Wellington; somewhere in Norway; Tasmania. Scores and parts were also purchased by someone in Wales, but I don’t know if it’s ever been performed by them.
Related Songs: (Yes, I know it’s not really a song). Trombone Concerto (another concerto); Tam O’Shanter (composed at the same time); Address To The Toothache (another song relating to teeth).
Other Information: This song was part of the portfolio for my Doctor Of Music degree (along with the trombone concerto and Tam O’Shanter). It was also written at around the same time as my setting of Robert Burns’ Address To The Toothache. I was going through a Robert Burns phase at the time, and also a very difficult time of dental and personal distress, so “In The Teeth Of It” seemed a good title for something that is after all rather exuberant and cheerful.

16. Lupset Chase
Musical Characteristics: It’s a dramatic short melody which can be sung as a round. There are four verses. The original song was a single line song, with an optional backing track as you can hear on the video. There’s also an arrangement for unaccompanied SATB choir.
Performances: Yes. Initially it was performed as part of “Something Special” by Yew Tree Youth Theatre in Wakefield. You can see that world premiere here, (starting at 2’57” and with a few jumps, for some reason!). The choir version has been performed by Swarland Voices on a few occasions.

Related Songs: Lupset Street Build (another song from Something Special); Pigeon Hands (another round, also from Something Special), Windy Nights (another song that races along)
Other Information: The Something Special project took place in Lupset in Wakefield. The young people of Yew Tree Youth Theatre were exploring the history of their local area in the project and one of them suggested that the word Lupset might have something to do with wolves, because lupine meant wolf-like. Sometimes that’s all the inspiration you need to set you off on a song – this is a hunting-with-wolves song, as they may have sung in Medieval times when Lupset was a large area of countryside.

17. Newcastle View
Musical Characteristics: It’s a nursery rhyme (Gannin On Wor Feet), that’s emerges gradually from an exploration of all its elements. The timbres used include electric guitars and percussion sounds…also the sounds of footsteps. The images on the video were the starting point and inspired the way the music evolves.
Performances: The work exists as this video and was given a couple of weeks on public display at a gallery in Newcastle in October 2014
Related Songs: The way the music gradually emerges from a thorough exploration of all its elements brings to mind A Takeaway Sunrise; Pierced Hemisphere and Quiet Window
Other Information: You can read all about this project here.

18. Four Pence A Day
Musical Characteristics: It’s a flowing folk song with five verses about lead mining in 19th century lead mines. It’s in a minor key and 4/4 time. The accompaniment in the choir version has lots of minor 7th chords.
Performances: Yes. It was first performed as a unison song by a year 3 class at Grangetown Primary School as part of the Winter Wear project in 2005. I subsequently made a version for 5-part choir, which has been performed by several groups including Alnwick Choral Society. The Bridge Singers will be performing it in April this year.
Related Songs: Other choir songs from the Winter Wear collection include: Dancing Stream; Magical Glass; Aves Beati Cuthberti
Other Information: The song starts with a build-up of chord, which is meant to represent the build-up of water behind a dam at the top of a hill. When the water is let out and down the slopes, the top soil is washed away revealing where the lead is. This is called a hush. In the original performance, the hush was represented by a bell chorus and some dance moves. In the choir version, the hush is represented by the blossoming of an eight-part chord from a unison D, which glissandos to nothing before verse 2!

19. Zebra Zig Zag
Musical Characteristics: It’s a song for children. It makes much use of the letter Z. It’s incredibly popular. It it especially fun when combined with the zig-zaggy actions described in the lyrics.
Performances: Lots…by me with my classes over the years, and by several others.
Related Songs: I’d Like A Zebra For My Birthday (another song from my Z phase); Hop About (another action song for children); I’m Scared To Skip (another alliterative song for children, this time using S, H, J and W)
Other Information: This song is part of a Musical Alphabet I once worked on with my teaching pal Trish in Brisbane. It’s ongoing. One day it’ll be finished!

20. Lullaby Of Robert Landreth
Musical Characteristics: It’s a lilting lullaby with four verses.
Performances: It was performed at a reunion of the Landreth family in 2010 by Matt Landreth accompanied by his cousin Rebekah.
Related Songs: Pigeon Hands (another lullaby); Buffalo Stories (another song of a family traveling from Britain, but this time to Australia); Little Bo-Peep (another song I wrote for my friend Glenda Landreth in which the bass solo was performed by her son Matt)
Other Information: You can read more about the song here.

21.The Birks Of Aberfeldy
Musical Characteristics: It’s a Scottish folk song with lyrics by Robert Burns. My arrangement of it for SATB choir is fairly straightforward really!
Performances: Yes. It’s been performed lots of times by choirs I know and plenty I don’t – copies have been purchased from this very website…and not just sample single copies!
Related songs: I have made lots of arrangements for choir of Robert Burns’ songs. Here are some of the best!
Other Information: This week I’m going to Aberfeldy for the first time ever. I’ll report back!

22. Skydancer: Ghost Of The Moors
Musical Characteristics: It has repeating patterns. It has a characterful melody that plays over the top of the repeating patterns. The middle section has an instrumental solo accompanied by a more chordal series of repetitions. There is an optional guitar/piano part. It’s rather beautiful and haunting, to be honest.
Performances: Yes. Quite a few. The video below was made by The bridge Singers in 2020 as a lockdown video to be played on hen Harrier Day in August of that year. Other choirs were invited to submit their own recordings. I know of one person who sang the song as a solo in 2021 at a live Hen Harrier event. The Bridge Singers have performed it several times together since then.
Related Songs: Slow Down! Red Squirrels! (another song about wildlife); Earthbound (another lockdown song from 2020. It also mentions hen harriers, as it happens!); Knit Me Together (another song with repeating patterns).
Other Information: There’s a learning video for this song which was designed to help my own choir and any others who wanted to participate, learn it for Hen Harrier Day in 2020. There’s a lot more information and the learning video here.

23. Cantate Domino
Musical Characteristics: It’s a lively and rhythmic fanfare for 8-part choir. It uses hocketing textures inspired by Balinese gamelan patterns. The sopranos and altos sing together, the tenors and basses sing something different in an antiphonal dialogue.
Performances: Yes. The world premiere was by Concentus in Brisbane. It’s since been performed by Rock Festival Choir in Alnwick and Kantos in Manchester. Scores have been purchased by others, so there may have been other performances. Kantos included it on their CD “The Silver Stars At Play”.
Related Songs: Dies Sanctificatus (another lively 8-part choral fanfare which uses antiphonal effected); Golden Rain Baby (another song inspired by Indonesian folk music); Red, Red Rose (another song performed by Manchester choir Kantos).
Other Information: Cantate Domino is part of my set of Five Christmas Fanfares. I wasn’t going to use any Christmas songs in this February set, but I’ve been away for a few days in Aberfeldy, away from the computer and was learning how to make a reel of some of my holiday photos on Facebook. The only music I could use in the background was from a list they provided. This recording by Kantos was on their list! You can find out more about this song here.

24. Under The Masks
Musical Characteristics: It’s lively, with an assortment of time signatures. It’s fanfare-like.
Performances: Lots by The Bridge Singers in 2021-22.
Related Songs: Tiny Temporary Pop-Up Puddles (another lockdown song with lyrics by Ian McMillan); Dies Sanctificatus (another lively fanfare for choir); Earthbound (another song about lockdown).
Other Information: This song is one of a set of seven setting the early stroll tweets of Ian McMillan. They all have silence in them and although this one and a few others have been performed individually, the whole set was performed together in The Bridge Singers’ Concert Of Silences in 2022

25. Three Churchyards
Musical Characteristics: It has a wandering, reflective quality. There is a repeating accompaniment pattern underneath the first two and fourth verses. The melody for these verses is wide-ranging. The 3rd verse contrast and is more chordal in texture.
Performances: None. Jamie and I made this recording in December 2023.
Related Songs: The Dowie Bride O’ Yarrow (another song written for a friend); Knit Me Together (a further song written for a friend that has repeating patterns); Hoolets In The Woods (another song with owls in).
Other Information: I wrote this song for my dear, dear friend Gwyn Thomas. He is the boy with the loud, loud boots in the song. I asked him for a story from his childhood and he told me of his regular walks home past the three churchyards in Brithdir. In August 2024, Jamie and I went to Brithdir and retraced Gwyn’s steps. I took lots of photos and one day will make another video of this song, with these new photos and some of Gwyn’s.

26. Rain
Musical Characteristics: It has drips, and a spiky tune, and is short.
Performances: Yes. I used to use it a lot when I was teaching – we’d sing the tune and play some drip patterns (which we might compose ourselves) while we sang. I made an arrangement for 3-part choir and this has also been performed, I’ve heard.
Related Songs: Golden Rain Baby (another rainy song); Even A Subdued Sky (another song with a spiky tune); The Swing (another song setting lyrics by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Other Information: Someone has used it on a recording on a website…or at least I get teensy amounts of royalties for such a thing every so often. Yesterday I got 7 Australian cents, which is why I’ve chosen this song today. I also got proper royalties for Motu Puketutu yesterday too. You can read all about that on the entry for 6th.

27. No Umbrella Blues
Musical Characteristics: It has a bluesy, jazzy feel, is slowish in tempo and is quite short. There are versions for SATB choir, TTBB choir, and one for upper voices too
Performances: Yes. Lots. It’s been performed by lots of choirs in New Zealand, where it received its premiere by Orlando Singers. Rock Festival Choir and Lionheart Harmony have performed it multiple times in Northumberland.
Related Songs: Ooh Ladyfinger (another song in a similar bluesy style); March Of The Heavy Ginghams (another song about umbrellas); Motu Puketutu (another song popular with school and other choirs in New Zealand.)
Other Information: It tells the story of a rainy afternoon in Dunedin in New Zealand, and has been very popular with school choirs in New Zealand.

28. Lullaby Of Silences
Musical Characteristics: It has a wide-ranging, yet flowing melody, The harmonies are scrumptious. It is dramatic and moving at the same time. It’s possibly the most beautiful song you’ve heard today!
Performances. Yes. Lots by The Bridge Singers. It’s one of their favourites. Maybe others. I don’t know, but there should be more!
Related Songs: Lullaby of Robert Landreth; Pigeon Hands; The Lamb – all deliciously beguiling too.
Other Information: There is everything you need to know about this song on here! I think it is one of the loveliest songs I’ve ever written.