Chelsea Morning

Program Notes:

Chelsea Morning ​was released on Joni’s 1969 album ​Clouds ​and performed by Mitchell and several other artists that same year. Mitchell’s joy of living in New York is reflected in this 2019 arrangement by Canadian composer Laura Hawley. Commissioned for Elektra with a generous gift from the Aulando, Whiteside, and Van Seters families.

Conductor Notes:

SSSSAAAA a cappella

This is a really fun, challenging arrangement in a style that Elektra doesn’t get to sing in very often. Two sections that are for six-voice texture are clearly marked. Otherwise it is in 8 parts, with the melody frequently tripled to achieve good balance. Even with that, care must be taken to keep the non-melody lines light and transparent. Will be most successful done by choirs that can sing very nimbly.

Composer / Arranger Notes:

I had such a fun time arranging Chelsea Morning for Elektra! I really thought a lot about the brightness of Joni Mitchell’s guitar in the original recording, and in writing this arrangement, I played around a lot in exploring different vocal sounds to use that would best capture that in ways that would feel good to sing and work well for voices. It’s such a beautiful tune, so I also wanted to set up the arrangement in a way that would allow everyone in the choir to have a turn singing at least some of the melody sometimes, and I think I was able to do that!

Text not provided for copyright reasons.

Text Source

Joni Mitchell