canasg choral music publishing

Canasg is a staunchly independent small publishing house, set up in 2001 by Sheena Phillips and Peter Hill, singers, composers and founder members of the Edinburgh-based Rudsambee company of singers. They were joined by John Wexler, webmaster and stalwart of the Rudsambee bass section. Although operating from Edinburgh, Scotland, there's a strong link with Columbus, Ohio, where Sheena is now based. Canasg also publishes the choral music of several other composers in Scotland and England, who are introduced further down this page.

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Sheena Phillips
Sheena is a composer and choral musician based in Columbus, Ohio, where she has lived for eight years since leaving Scotland. She was a founding member of Rudsambee company of singers in Edinburgh, and directed the group for six years. She is Artistic Director of the Magpie Consort, a sixteen voice group with an eclectic repertoire ranging from Medieval songs to contemporary writing, Artistic Co-Director of the Columbus Women's Chorus, Director of the Women's Chorale at Otterbein College, and Director of Music at Summit on 16th United Methodist Church in the Ohio State University campus area.

Sheena's compositions are being commissioned and performed by many groups on both sides of the Atlantic, including the National Youth Choir of Scotland, Seattle Pro Musica, Chicago A Cappella, the Lancaster Chorale (Ohio), and by numerous churches and college choirs. Sheena has a web site at www.sheenaphillips.com

David Johnson
David Johnson is an Edinburgh, Scotland based composer, musicologist, music journalist, recorder player, cellist and publisher. He has held teaching posts at the University of Edinburgh and the Open University.

His composition catalogue comprises some 50 works, ranging from short pieces for amateurs and schoolchildren to substantial works such as 12 Preludes & Fugues for piano (1995) and the opera Thomas the Rhymer (1976). Recent achievements include directing the CDs The Art of Robert Burns and More Art of Robert Burns for the American label Scotstown; having his 1-act opera Sorry, False Alarm premiered by Trinity College of Music in London, and his Concerto da Camera premiered by Napier University in Edinburgh. He is at present writing a new opera, The Adventures of David Balfour, based on R. L. Stevenson's novel Kidnapped.

Paul Ayres
Paul Ayres works in London as a freelance composer/arranger, choral conductor/musical director and organist/accompanist. He directs several youth and children's choirs, and he is assistant Director of Music at St George's Church Hanover Square. His choral compositions and arrangements have been performed all over the world and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM (UK) and many National Public Radio stations (USA). Paul's catalogue also includes songs, musicals and instrumental pieces - please visit www.paulayres.co.uk for more details.

Peter Hill
Peter sings tenor (and plays occasional flute) with Rudsambee. He lists his favourite composer as 'Trad Anon', and has arranged many traditional songs for choir. He has written new songs in English and Gaelic, and lyrics that have been set to music by Sheena Phillips and Frances Cockburn.

Frances Cockburn
Frances was the Musical Director of Rudsambee company of singers from 2000 to 2006 and writes and arranges a steady stream of choral music, much of which is deeply rooted in the Scots tradition. Since leaving Rudsambee she has been busy arranging music for female voices for her new project The Wild Myrtles.

Michael Buck
Michael Buck started composing as a member of Rudsambee company of singers. He is a retired librarian and a lover of poetry, which is the main inspiration for his music.

Marg Hall
Singer and recorder player and teacher, Marg has published recorder quartets and trios, but says 'the greatest challenge is to write for voices'. She lives in the countryside near Edinburgh where she also runs a pottery.

Douglas Cook
Douglas Cook has written and arranged music all his working life, firstly as a teacher and director of music in secondary schools in the south of England, and now in busy retirement in the Lake District. Singing has always been important too: he trained as a Quirister at Winchester College and currently directs a small chamber choir, Nova Cantica. He has a particular interest in medieval and Renaissance music.

John Wexler
A singer, recorder player and computer wizard, John's eclectic common sense makes him an invaluable member of the Canasg team.

Philip Wood
Philip Wood is a composer and teacher based in Cumbria. He has degrees in music from Northampton and Leeds, latterly studying with Philip Wilby and Prof. Julian Rushton. During the early part of his career Philip received much encouragement from Sir Malcolm Arnold and as a result does much work for the Arnold Society. Amongst his pieces written for professional musicians are: String Quartet No. 3 (Sorrel Quartet), Concertino for recorder and string quartet (John Turner and members of Manchester Camerata) and Four Bagatelles (Martin Roscoe).

Geoffrey Dale
Geoff Dale studied orchestration with Iain Hamilton at Morley College (London) and had a few brief composition lessons with Anthony Milner but is largely self taught. He has sung in choirs since the age of 11. Geoff belongs to a valuable organisation called the Portsmouth and District Composers Alliance (PDCA) which organises performances of new works in the South of the UK, and has had several pieces performed through them. Reviews of his performed works can be seen at the PDCA web page which may be accessed via his web page at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoffrey.dale/

Mark Burstow
Mark Burstow grew up in Belfast and has a wealth of choral experience. He directed the Harlandic Male Voice Choir in Belfast for ten years (starting off as youngest Male Choir conductor in the UK) and made many recordings and broadcasts with this group. He also founded the Tavener Consort, a small select mixed voice ensemble, and directed this and a number of provincial choral societies. As a singer he served as a lay clerk at Belfast Cathedral and assisted with the training of the trebles. An enthusiastic amateur choralist, he currently lives in Bournemouth, Dorset with his wife Helen, where he works as a civil servant.

Richard Nye
Richard Nye began his musical career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral and went on to study music at Southlands College, London. He has, over the years, combined a career as a teacher (he is currently Director of Studies at Dumpton School, Wimborne in Dorset) with his desire to compose. His work has been performed, published and recorded by a wide variety of individuals and groups both in the UK and abroad (including Canada, USA and Europe). 2006 saw Richard share a stage with Sir John Tavener and the first performance of a new commission, Colour Poems, by the Cheltenham Bach Choir, conducted by Stephen Jackson, to mark their 60th year. Future projects include a new work for eight hands on two pianos, an orchestral piece for children and a music theatre project with his friend and collaborator, Ian York.

David Barton
Born in Winchester, Hampshire, in 1983, David words as a freelance teacher of singing, flute, piano and music theory in Gloucester. He has played the organ in churches locally for the past 10 years, and is currently assistant organist at St. John’s Northgate Methodist Church in Gloucester. He composes for a variety of instrumental and vocal combinations, with works published in the UK, USA and Canada. More information is available from his website at http://www.davidbarton.org.uk

da Noust
da Noust (the Orcadian word for a boat shelter) is the pen-name of a group of musicians connected with L'Arche Edinburgh. L'Arche (French for 'The Ark') is a world-wide ecumenical network of over 100 communities of people with learning disabilities and their assistants.

Jane Chattock's book of rounds
In November 1832, Jane Chattock opened a small music manuscript book and wrote her name on the flyleaf. She then copied a collection of favourite rounds into it, and got her friends to add more in their own hand. We know nothing more of Jane, but her book came to light in an Edinburgh second-hand book shop in 1982 and now lets us see what amused a little group of social singers in the years around the accession of Queen Victoria. See Canasg's selection under Jane Chattock in the World section of the catalogue.

Canasg began by publishing our own music written for Rudsambee, the award-winning company of singers based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Follow the link on our links page for more information about *Rudsambee* Company of Singers; including concert dates, sound clips, mug shots - plus find out what their name means. There's an opportunity to buy one of their excellent CDs featuring many Canasg songs below...	Rudsambee:


Out of the Christmas flame 27 wonderfully atmospheric Christmas songs - some well-known favourites and delighful surprises. Price: Ł9.50 inc postage and packing
	^ This collection of Christmas and midwinter songs ranges from the familiar Christmas story via curious legends (Villanelle de Noel) and secular traditions (Wassail Song) to the downright subversive (The Innocents' Song). Music from the 15th to the 21st century, music from Naples, Sweden, France, Iceland, Spain, Scotland, England and America, a Basque carol, and a Catalan song.
Bottled at source 25 of Rudsambee's own compositions and settings: original music, poetry and traditional songs from many countries. v	Wind, water and landscape, dreams, loneliness and love are recurring themes. Some you may recognise - Ae fond kiss, Fhir a' bhata and Amazing Grace are familiar traditional Scottish tunes. Others will be completely new to you - The optimists' song and To music. Price: Ł9.50 inc postage and packing
citrus and honey 27 songs of love, longing, joy and sadness. Price: Ł9.50 inc postage and packing
	^ New versions of traditional songs from Scotland, France, Egypt and Croatia; settings of theatre songs by Shakespeare and Ben Johnson; new settings of Scots poems; psalms and songs of praise from Europe and Africa.