International singing artist Barb Jungr has released new song "In My Troubled Days", performed with The Fourth Choir, a group of LGBT+ singers led by Dominic Ellis-Peckham, and published the choral arrangements so that choirs can perform it.
The song is co-written with Grammy and Emmy Award-winning conductor, composer, orchestrator John McDaniel with whom Jungr has previously collaborated.
Describing how the song came about, Jungr said, “last spring, John McDaniel and I decided to write something for a gala performance we were due to do a couple of months later and I sat down and looked out of the window. I was feeling pretty low but the trees were in bud and there was blossom, so I went for a walk along the river. And everything I saw made my heart sing. Every flower, every ripple on the water that caught the sun, made my troubles seem so much smaller. The result was ‘In My Troubled Days’.
“When I started a recent collaboration with The Fourth Choir, I proposed ‘In My Troubled Days’ as something we might do together, and we recorded it in St Silas The Martyr Church in Kentish Town just as our world was turning in a direction none of us had foreseen.
“I played the recording to friends, and without exception they said, please, put this out now. So we are. I hope people everywhere will sing it. I hope choirs will sing it. I hope our world turns again and the sun shines again and the sad cafés where no-one has the answer fill again. Meanwhile, I watch the blossom and the neighbour’s bees and look towards the stars.”
The instrument arrangement is by Jenny Carr who is at the piano with Dudley Phillips on bass. The choral arrangement is by McDaniel and Ellis-Peckham is the choral director. The recording is by David Jones, mixed by Christoph Bracher. The choral parts are available for full choir and for choir with soloist.
“In My Troubled Days” may be streamed and purchased online.