by Hannah Fredsgaard-Jones with Freedom Of Mind Community Choir
Choir, in order of appearance: Linda McFarlane, Kirsten Fullerton, Janet Murray, Shirley Young, Theresa Edgar, Madeleine Strassheim, Graeme Findlay, Marion Risk, Catriona Cameron, Mariot Dallas, Graeme Skinner, Janet Crawford, Maureen Quinn, Alison Kerr, Gemma McIntosh, May Lyon, William Fullard, Cliff Dickson, Linda Bell, John Greenhalgh, Gary Riddle, Anne Miller, Kim Edgar & Carol Hughes.
Access resources for A New Day
A New Day was created by Danish born songwriter Hannah Fredsgaard-Jones in collaboration with the members of Falkirk based Freedom of Mind Community Choir. There are three vocal parts: soprano, alto and tenor, and a couple of optional lines for lower bass voices. There is a piano part and a leadsheet.
The lyrics were created by everyone and edited and shaped by Hannah. Freedom of Mind Community Choir sing together to enjoy the physical and emotional benefits, and this is reflected in the song which offers a very positive, bright, and optimistic outlook. Stylistically the song sits somewhere in a folk-pop strand and is characterised by Hannah’s quirky modal sense of harmony which is reminiscent of the early songs of Joni Mitchell.
There are some unusual structural shifts in the song. The chorus, for example, falls into two parts with a dead stop right in the middle, and we get a fresh musical idea arriving in the coda. There are spots for solos, a good amount of close harmony singing and some little rhythmic canons in the chorus that will require a bit of rehearsal focus. The big-hearted ending, a repetition of the words A New Day could be repeated as often as you like.
We love the lyric “it begins with a choir of voices, a million choices I could make”. That feels like an exciting challenge for all of us.