An infamous letter from an editor to an author runs this way: “What you have sent me is both good and original. However, that which is original is not good, and that which is good is not original.”

This is the problem all editors face in music as well as in literature. But it is also the problem of every choral director searching for music for the next season or concert. There is an abundance of choral literature published each year, much of it good for one season only. It has always been that way. Unfortunately, choral budgets in schools and churches are down for many, and what is invested in the choral library must be of lasting value.

We have in the Thomas Brooks Choral Series just that. These are classics of the choral literature, creatively arranged—in a new suit of clothes so to speak—for the modern chorister and audience. And, for good measure, some original works, future classics, all by Hubert Bird, a man whose music is both good and original.