“Thank you for your work with The Royal College of Music this year! We have all loved working with you and are in awe of your orchestration skills!”
ORCHESTRAL PIECES
“Oh for the Wings”
Sam Chaplin presented the Royal College of Music Family Concert in October 2022. ‘Oh for the Wings’ is the participatory piece he was commissioned to write for symphony orchestra and audience for this concert.
Click here to see a sample of the score.
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Sam writes: ‘Oh for the wings’ was designed to sit in a concert celebrating the film music of John Williams (E.T., Jaws and Star Wars) and Alan SIlvestri (Back to the Future). I decided that 'flying' was a theme that joined most of these pieces and chose the timeless words from Psalm 55 "Oh for the wings of a dove" which expresses the human longing to fly (away from trouble/pressure). I also enjoyed the opportunity to reference John Williams' orchestral and harmonic language. We took 5 minutes to learn the song with the audience, and the inbuilt repetition of the phrases allows the audience to learn the song whilst singing it. There are also actions with the song.
“This is an absolute banger of a song and they're going LOVE learning and singing it. And the orchestration is equally awesome. Just the right amount of nerdy referencing John Williams - staying on the side of 80s kid-fan without tipping over into showing off.”
- James Redwood (composer)
“The way you delivered the concert was spot-on especially the way you connected with the audience.”
To enquire about purchasing the score and parts for “Oh for the Wings”, to commission your own piece or/and to enquire about Sam Chaplin presenting your concert please click below.
“We’re gonna dance”
Sam Chaplin presented the Royal College of Music Schools’ Concert in March 2023. ‘We’re Gonna Dance’ is the participatory piece he was commissioned to write for symphony orchestra and audience for this concert.
This recording uses midi orchestral sounds playing the score and my vocals.
Click here to see a sample of the score.
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Sam writes: ‘We’re Gonna Dance’ is designed to sit in a concert that featured the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein.
I wanted to create a piece that introduced the pupils to the sound world of Leonard Bernstein and that picked up on the themes from the musical. I trained a group of students at the college to lead a workshop and teach this song in the local schools. They used the lyrics as a way of telling the story of West Side Story. We came together and all performed it in the concert with the orchestra.
“Yesterday was a real triumph; you hit the tone and delivery, perfectly!”
To enquire about purchasing the score and parts for “We’re Gonna Dance”, to commission your own piece or/and to enquire about Sam Chaplin presenting your concert please click below.
“I’ve got a Super Power!”
Sam Chaplin presented the Royal College of Music Family Concert in October 2023. ‘I’ve got a Super Power!’ is the participatory piece he was commissioned to write for symphony orchestra and audience for this concert.
Click here to see a sample of the score.
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Sam writes: ‘I’ve got a Super Power’ was designed to sit in the middle of a concert of music celebrating 100 Years of Disney. The song is also designed to be learnable within the concert in less than 5 minutes. The concert featured scores by Alan Menkin (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) and Michale Giacchino (Up, Ths Incredibles). I was also asked to write a song that could be easily accessible for children in the audiecnce with SEND. So I gathered all the themes together and created ‘I’ve got a Super Power’ - with a chorus that even those who are non-verbal can participate in. There is a book written to help neuro-diverse children called ‘Ollie and his super powers’ - so I had that in mind as I started to write. This song is about the greatest super power of them all - the power of love! There are actions for the song - feel free to make up your own - or contact me and I can show you.
“Everyone loved the song which worked so well as it was so easy to learn, was incredibly uplifting, impressive and catchy!”
To enquire about purchasing the score and parts for “I’ve got a Super Power!”, to commission your own piece or/and to enquire about Sam Chaplin presenting your concert please click below.
CHORAL PIECES
“Here is love”
Sam Chaplin wrote this choral piece for a Good Friday service in 2021 at Christ Church Spitalfields.
Sam writes: “I curated the service with my wife Rachel Chaplin, and we both wrote for new pieces.
The words are taken from the Welsh hymn by William Rees written in 1876. The hymn ‘Here is Love Vast as the Ocean’ became synonymous with the Welsh revivals of 1904-5 . My initial thought was to set the whole hymn - but I loved the openness of just the first line drawing the listener into a meditation.”
“Beautiful, really lovely!” - Pete Churchill, Professor of Jazz Composition, Royal Academy of Music
To enqiuire about purchasing the sheet music for “Here is Love” please click below
“O Holy Night”
This is an arrangement by Sam Chaplin of the perennial favourite written for a Christmas carol service at Christ Church Spitalfields in 2022.
To enqiuire about purchasing the sheet music for “O Holy Night” or for a choir workshop please click below