Following on 13 years after the seminal Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, the Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël (1951–2) invite choirs to perform an exquisitely crafted quartet of miniatures depicting colourful scenes from the nativity story.

The first two works set Matin Responsories for Christmas Day. O magnum mysterium offers a profound, rapt meditation; Quem vidistis, pastores? offsets two contrasting themes concerning the shepherds. Videntes stellam evocatively paints the journey of the Magi while the joyful, almost terpsichorean exuberance of Hodie Christus natus est perhaps harks back to the wilder side of Poulenc in his younger years carousing as a Parisian socialite.

The name SAM-Klang takes the three voice parts from the arrangements – Soprano, Alto and Men – and combines it with the Scandinavian and German words for ‘sound’ to create the portmanteau word ‘sound together’ or ‘harmony’. The SAM-Klang series offers basic and advanced choral repertoire arranged for soprano, alto and one male voice- part. In addition to new repertoire and new arrangements, you will also find essential parts of the classical German, Scandinavian, French and English SATB repertoire, carefully and considerately reworked for SAM. The arrangements retain the characteristic features of the original movements and have almost the same richness of timbre, resulting in works which sound nearly unchanged to an audience. Piano reductions of all choral movements facilitate rehearsal preparation. The arrangements offer development opportunities for all voice sections, bringing new life and new quality to SAM choir work. SAM-Klang enables youth choirs to gain access to classical choral literature and ensures that mixed choirs who face challenges in finding singers for all male voice parts continue to have access to well-loved repertoire.