In the Month of January, performance materials + license

Quick summary

• Forces: SATB
• Duration: c. 2'30"
• Difficulty: easy
• Occasions: New Year, January, winter, Spring Term, any occasion
• Text: traditional
• Language: English
• Date of composition: 2021

Licenses include the appropriate number of print-outs for the specified ensemble size, and are valid for unlimited performances by the same ensemble. Please choose the appropriate license for your choir size.

Performance materials include two copies of the full score – one with and one without a piano reduction.

Detailed info

In the Month of January tells the familiar tale of a young woman who is seduced and made pregnant, then abandoned by a (presumably much wealthier) young man. The singer of the song recounts meeting the woman as she wanders the snowy January hills, having been cast out by her family as a result of her pregnancy. 

The same story is told in countless traditional songs, and to sing it today is a reminder that the fight for gender equality continues, with women all over the world still facing persecution and living without basic rights and freedoms that many of us take for granted.

Stef's simple four-part setting is designed to be learnt easily by ear, as well as being suitable for score-reading choirs. Its memorable, intuitive harmonies enable a fun learning process, with minimal note bashing and plenty of unison singing.

It begins in unison, with new layers of harmony gradually added, before a full SATB texture arrives in the second verse. The harmonies are simple adaptations of the main melody, which means that the most effective (and fun!) aural learning sequence begins with everybody learning a whole verse in unison, before the full harmonies are taught. The main melody is not consistently sung by one part, but distributed between all four, so that every part gets to enjoy singing melodic material.