Music clinics are rolling along (Clinic Information Here)--now is planning time for the choral year! We provide quick updates whenever we add something new to Prelude via our Fanfare announcements, and I can never cover all of the great pieces we're adding daily, but today I'll go a little more in-depth with some recommendations for your choral year programming.

Wait--what was the name of that clinic piece?

• Did you like something you heard at the clinic? Couldn't attend this year? Everything featured at clinics is available on Prelude! New Releases from Augsburg Fortress, Choristers Guild, MorningStar...
• Forget who wrote that one you liked at the clinic, or only recall a few details about it? Type "summer2014clinic" (no spaces) in the Title/Theme/Keywords box to bring up all the clinic music from all publishers. You can use Prelude in tandem with our webstore to help you find and order those pieces, too: New Music for Fall, Advent, Christmas 2014.
• Remember: Prelude offers the Preview feature to confirm whether you're getting just the right version of the song you'd like, to allow you to plan and print it at the best time of year for your choir and your congregation.

GIA latest material: Great Choral Year Pillars and Special Occasions, adding instruments to choral works

• Magnificat for Advent (SATB, org, trumpet) or Night of Silence for Christmas (SATB, keyboard, optional winds/string/guitar) are two solid picks for a larger work for your Advent/Christmas choral season. All instrumental parts and scores available on Prelude!
• Easter Proclamation by Ferguson is a festive Easter piece for SATB, brass, and organ. It's lovely--but not overwhelming to learn for a small or medium sized choir; GIA's website says "Despite all the substance of this piece, it is not beyond the reach of the respectable church choir."
• Special anniversary or church dedication? A Song of Hope is good choice--arrangement by John Ferguson, text by Isaac Watts, designed to include SATB, children's choir, brass, and handbells.

Service Music

• Gospel Acclamations for Autumn and Gospel Acclamations for Advent-Transfiguration are available for every week of the church year from September 7, 2014 through February 15, 2015 (the rest of the liturgical year will be loaded by January). Just search by the date you need, and your choir and/or handbells can be prepared to lead the Alleluia.
• Remember to plan for Choral stanzas and Descants (free with Prelude subscription!): great for weekly variety in hymn-singing, adding to special festivals, or when you just don't have the right anthem to match a Sunday, when an ELW text suits an occasion but that hymn could use musical augmentation. Launch the Planner and go to Filter by Type to click the exact category you need.

Coming soon to Prelude (July/August 2014): New content daily!

• Hope Publishing spring 2014 new releases, then fall 2014 new releases
• Music Sourcebook Vol. 2: All Saints-Transfiguration
  
• Of the Land and Seasons
• Assembly Required, Set 3
• MorningStar's O Lord of Light: Nine Two-Part Mixed Anthems for the Church Year
• Ecumenical hymnody: Hymnal 1982, the main hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the USA is being gradually entered over the summer alphabetically by title (we've reached Letter O)

We hope you'll have a great time learning and getting inspiration at clinics, meeting new colleagues and friends and catching up with familiar faces. We're always happy to hear the kinds of things you'd like to see in Prelude, too. Have a great summer!