Westminster Williamson Voices has released a new album of winter and Christmas pieces. It contains mix of carols and winter pieces by various composers.
Improvisation on Coventry Carol, Sam Scheibe, Christian Koller, Guillermo Passarin, Alex Tomlinson
Solitude, James Whitbourn
The Stars Now Rearrange Themselves, Thomas LaVoy
The Burning Ladder, Sarah Rimkus
Salvation to All That Will Is Nigh, Anthony Maglione
Brightest and Best, Sarah Rimkus
Coventry Carol, John Frederick Hudson
Magnificat, Peter Relph
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, Sam Scheibe
Disclaimer: Regarding, the heading photo used above, we do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended, it is used for educational purposes only. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of any photo on this blog in compliance with the DMCA
Elora Singers release "Radiant Dawn" album full of Christmas Classics
Elora Singers have released new Christmas album of that includes the music of Sir. David Willcocks, Bob Chilcott, Jonathan Dove, Jeff Enns, Ola Gjeillo, James MacMillan, Philip Stopford, Arvo Part, and more.
We Are Looking for Videos/Recordings of this Music
Working List
Updated Oct. 2, 2022
Yes, we are exaggerating. Not necessary lost, but we are seeking your help. Do you know of a recording or video on the Internet of this work being performed? Do you know of a recording (e.g., album, ep, LP).
If so let us know by emailing us at: christmascarolblog@gmail.com.
Reginal Tustin Baker (4 July 1900 – 18 December 1966)
Sleep Holy Babe
Christ was Born on Christmas Day
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H. Hugh Bancroft
Good Christians Now Let All Rejoice (1948) - carol
________
Bernard Barrell (15 August 1919 – 2 January 2005)
A Carol Prelude for string orchestra and 3 recorders, Op.17 (1958)
Longfellow's Carol (I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day) for voice or unison voices and piano (or organ), Op.121 (1989)
I Sing of a Maiden and Lullay My Liking for soprano and mixed chorus a cappella, Op.7 (1948)
Two Christmas Preludes
for Recorders and Strings, Op. 32 (1961) (Based on "Sussex"
Carol tune and "In dulci
jubilo"
Two Carols for unaccompanied mixed voices, Op. 66 (1971) - (As Joseph was a-waslking & Rejoice and be merry).
How Far is It to Bethlehem?, Carol for unison voices and piano, Op. 73 (1973); words by Frances Chesterton.
Two 15th Century Carols for female, male or mixed chorus a capella, Op. 75 (1974)
- I sing of a maiden and There is no rose of such virtue.
Three Hymn-Tunes (Unison Voices & Organ/Pf., Op. 78
Songs of praise the angels sang. ("Lucian")(Words: J. Montgomery: 1771-1854)
Nativity Music for unison voices and piano (with optional recorders, etc.), Op. 80 (1976)
Seven lesser joys of Mary
As shepherds lay within the fold
Lute-Book Lullaby (W. Ballet)
Rejoice and be merry
I sing the Birth (Ben Johnson)
Duets for Descants Four Pieces 2 Descant recorders (or alternative combination)
(i) Fanfaire (ii) Carol (iii) Waltz (iv.) Canon (20 questions)(the first movement may be repeated at the end)
(Pub. Barry Brunton Music Publishers)
Christemas. 3 carols for mixed chorus a capella. Op. 120 (1989)
In excelsis gloria
Sweet was the song the Virgin song
Make we merry
For Ipswich Choral Society
(Pub. Oecumuse)(S.C.L.)(C.R.)
Longfellow's Carol (I heard the bells on Christmas Day) Solo or Unison Voice(s) and Piano (or Organ)
Longfellow's Carol (I head the bells on Christmas Day) Solo or Unison Voices(s) and PIano (or Organ)
Longfellow's Carol (I head the bells on Christmas Day) Solo or Unison Voice(s) and Piano (or Organ)
(Joyce Barrel died on 6th December 1989)
A Christmas Triptych for mixed chorus a capella, Op. 133 (1995)
Christmas Hymn ("Once in Royal David's City")
Christmas Carol (Rejoice and be merry - a gallery carol)
Christmas Fanfare (Gloria in excelsis)
For Forester and the Academy of St. Clement Norwich
(Pub. Oecumuse)
_____________________
William Henry Bell
Medieval Songs for female chorus, string orchestra and piano
"The Maidden that is Makeless (to "I syng of a mayden")
"Mater ora filium"
"The Flowr of Jesse"
"A Domys Day"
"May in the greenwood"
"Twelve Oxen"
_________________________
Ronald Binge (July 15, 1910 - Sept. 6, 1979)
Carol of the Drum (arrg.)
I Wonder as I wonder (arrangement)(Lemmel)
_____________________
Rutland Boughton
Four Everyman Songs: 3. The Angel Song
According to the Rutland Boughton Foundation, this piece is "location unknown."
"Little Tree" which was commissioned by the Young People's Chorus of New York City for Transient Glory. We could not find a video for this. (Wise Music).
"Leaf from Leaf Christ Knows," "...was
given its first performance by the Choir of Wells Cathedral, James Kealey
(organ) and Matthew Owens (conductor), during the festival new music wells
76–16, on Thursday 20th October 2016. It was commissioned by Cathedral
Commissions of Wells Cathedral with the generous support of private
donors" (Wise Music). Text is by Christina Rosseti. We could not find a
video of this.
FOUND:
Leaf from Leaf Christ Knows, Judith Wier
__________________________________
Lennox Berkeley
I could not find videos that included an arraignment of Adeste Fideles for Organ and Chorale (1964) . I found it on the Wise Music catalogue website, but the website states it is "unavailable for performance." It is listed as SATB and one instrument.
Charlotte Alington Barnard "Claribel"
The Christmas Rose, Twelve Ballads (1868)
Disclaimer: Regarding, the heading photo used above, we do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended, it is used for educational purposes only. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of any photo on this blog in compliance with the DMCA
Voctave puts out Extended Edition of 2016 Album: Spirit of the Season
Label Description:
Just as VOCTAVE is a musical ensemble greater than the sum of its 11
members, The Spirit of The Season (Deluxe Edition) is greater than the
sum of its brilliant song selections, the intricate arrangements and the
angelic voices. From traditional moments like O Holy Night and O Come O
Come Emmanuel to jolly strains of Frosty The Snowman and The Man With
The Bag to newer Christmas classics like Where Are You Christmas and
Mary Did You Know?, VOCTAVE has truly given us all a treasured gift that
represents so many of the beautiful moments of the Yuletide season.
This elegant recording is sure to be the favorite in your home for many
seasons to come.
The Sixteen Releases Album "Carol of the Bells" on Coro Label
From Advent Antiphons to Lesser-known, but beautiful carols
Label Description:
The Sixteen contrasts traditional with
contemporary in this choral feast of festive music. Bob Chilcott's
sumptuous Advent Antiphons based on ancient plainsong melodies
anticipate the coming of Christmas and feature alongside Mykola
Leontovich's much-loved Carol of the Bells, Richard Rodney Bennett’s
stunning Susanni and Eric Whitacre’s shimmering Lux aurumque.
Interspersed with the beautiful simplicity of traditional carols, this
is a Christmas collection to savor.
Disclaimer: Regarding, the heading photo used above, we do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended, it is used for educational purposes only. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of any photo on this blog in compliance with the DMCA
We are putting together articles on the Christmas carols and music by John Rutter and Elizabeth Poston continuing our series on the carol repertory. This may require weeks of work, but we wanted to post a little about composers who may have a smaller Christmas repertory.
As famous and as long of a career that Edward Elgar had, his Christmas output is not much. Of course, you can search for a good biography of Elgar anywhere on the Internet.
The first piece is is "Lo! Christ the Lord is Born" (1908), below performed by the Gustav Mahler Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Society of Colombo. The notes on the video say the "hymn" is "rarely heard hymn...." It is describes as :Christmas carol SATB unacc.,after Grete Malverne on a Rocke, 1897. ." The text is by poet Shapcott Wensley. In this recording, brass begins the carol before flowing into the chorus accompanied by organ. It is very hymn like:
"Lo! Christ the Lord is Born"
The second Christmas piece is called "A Christmas Greeting" Op. 52 below of a 1978 recording of the Hereford Cathedral. Even on that video, the notes say, "As far as we know, this is the only live recording of one of Elgar's least-known works. From a BBC radio programme entitled 'Reflections in Words and Music', which was recorded in 1978 and eventually broadcast on 25 April 1980."
It has an instrumental introduction before the entrance of the children's choir, which is very beautiful. The string and piano adornments are also very well crafted to go along with the choir crescendos and diminuendos. The text is by Caroline Alice Elgar (1848-1920). It is listed as a carol for 2 sopranos, male chorus ad lib, 2 violins and piano and the strings and piano in the background is what makes "A Christmas Greeting" great as well has how Elgar is able to make the text of the poem stick to music so elegantly.
The notes of Hyperion's website for a Worchester Cathedral Choir recording of the work state:
On 8 December 1907, while they were in Rome, Elgar revived the two
violins and piano accompaniment when he set another poem by Alice, A Christmas Greeting.
They sent it home to Hereford for Dr G R Sinclair and his cathedral
choristers who gave the first performance on New Year's Day 1908, The
setting is for high voices, with optional tenor and bass parts and, like
the Enigma theme, it is in G minor and G major. It contains a quotation
from the 'Pastoral Symphony' in Handel's Messiah at the reference to pipers wandering far.
A Christmas Greeting
Bowered on sloping hillsides rise
In sunny glow, the purpling vine;
Beneath the greyer English skies,
In fair array, the red-gold apples shine.
To those in snow,
To those in sun,
Love is but one;
Hearts beat and glow,
By oak and palm.
Friends, in storm or calm.
On and on old Tiber speeds,
Dark with the weight of ancient crime;
Far north, thr' green and quiet meads,
Flows on the Wye in mist and silv'ring rime.
To those in snow,
To those in sun,
Love is but one;
Hearts beat and glow,
By oak and palm.
Friends, in storm or calm.
The pifferari wander far,
They seek the shrines, and hymn the peace
Which herald angels, 'neath the star,
Foretold to shepherds, bidding strife to cease.
Our England sleeps in shroud of snow,
Bells, sadly sweet, knell life's swift flight,
And tears, unbid, are wont to flow,
As "Noel! Noel!" sounds across the night.
To those in snow,
To those in sun,
Love is but one!
Hearts beat and glow,
By oak and palm.
Friends, in storm or calm.
The third piece is "I Sing the Birth" based on text by Ben Johnson. It was first published in 1923 and listed as Christmas carol SATB unaccompanied. Below it is performed by the Rodolfus Choir under the direction of Ralph Allwood.
The last piece we mention is of course Elgars most performed "Christmas piece" which is "The Snow" Op. 26 (1894). The text is also by C. Alice Elgar and is not necessary Christmas, but certainly winter and song has crept into many a Christmas album and Christmas choir concert. It is especially popular with children's choirs. It has some similarity to "A Christmas Greeting" though the orchestrations give a more winter and "cold" feel. "A Christmas Greeting" is the younger piece (1908). Below is the University of Utah's Women's Chorus:
"The Snow" Op.26
Elgar wrote arraignments of "The Snow" for piano, two violins, and SSA, as well an arraignment for same but with orchestra. It is among Elgar's earlier compositions.
Elgar also has an 1898 arraignment of "The Holly and the Ivy" of which we are still looking for a recording or video.
UPDATE January 12, 2023: We were listening to an episode of The Choral Chihuahua Podcast December 22, 2022 episode, and it was mentioned Elgar's "Holly and the Ivy" was played on BBC Radio 3's Essential Classics with Georgia Man. You can hear the episode, with Elgar's "Holly and Ivy" being the third piece played by going to this link:
The Elgar piece from 1898 is rarely performed and has been rarely recorded. We posted it on our Instagram Page and tagged many ensembles hoping to spur them to record it. The BBC Radio 3 audio will only be available until January 18, 2022.
Elgar also has a lullaby like song, "A Child Asleep" (1910) on the text by Elizabeth Barret Brown. It is not necessary about the Christ child, but can be used for a Christmas concert or recording. Below is Catherine Wyn-Rogers performing it:
"A Child Asleep"
Elgar also has a lullaby in From the Bavarian Highlands: "3. Lullaby."
"3. Lullaby"
"IX. Nimrod" Op. 36 (1899) from Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma) has also sneaked its way into many a Christmas concert, especially as an opening piece for an orchestra who will be accompanying the choir for most of a concert.
Elgar composed many great sacred music works including his Three motets / anthems Op. 2 (1887) which include "Ave verum corpus," "Ave maria," and "Ave Maris Stella"; "Jesu, Meek and Lowly"; hisTe Deum and Benedictus Op. 34 (1897); The Apostles Op. 39; "O Hearken Thou" Op. 64 based on Psalm 5; "Great is the lord" Op. 67 bases on Psalm 48; among others.
Disclaimer: Regarding, the heading photo used above, we do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended, it is used for educational purposes only. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of any photo on this blog in compliance with the DMCA
Cecilia McDowall: Commissioned for Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
King's College, Cambridge announces McDowall was commissioned for a new carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
On November 12, 2021, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge announced on their Facebook Page that composer Cecilia McDowall had been commissioned to write the annual new carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carol. A press release was also released.
Since 1983, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge has commissioned a prominent composer to write a new carol to be performed at the annual Festival of Nine Lessons in Carol on Christmas Eve.
The tradition was started by the late Stephen Cleobury to continue the tradition of carol composition. The first composer commission was Lennox Berkley and the last was Phillip Moore. No composer was commission in 2020, most likely due to the world-wide pandemic.
The announcement of the new carol is often the most anticipated new carol in the choral world and we think the carol-loving world was sad that no carol was premiered last year. See"The State of the Christmas Carol: 2020."
The Christmas Carols Blog has been using King's list of past commissioned composers to explore the modern carol repertory. So far we have focused on:
Also of interest to readers is our post Working List of Choral Recording Focusing on Modern Composers Christmas Works on albums dedicated to the Christmas repertory of select composers. They include Peter Warlock, Stephen Paulus, Ola Gielo, Bob Chilcott, Ralph Vaught Williams, Michael John Trotta, Leo Sowerby, William Ferris, Paul Edwards, Leroy Anderson, Witold Lutoslawski, Alfred Burt, Gustav Holst, William Walton, John Rutter, Jacques Cohen, John Tavaner, Daniel Pickham, Samuel Pegg, and Ben Perry.
King's announced McDowell's carol would be a setting of "There is no rose."
"There is no rose," of course, is a text very famous in the carol world. According to the editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols, it is found in the "early fifteenth-century manuscript roll in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge."
Is is the last item listed in the manuscript and had original music but the original music is difficult to decipher due to manuscript decay.
The editors state, "The identification of Mary with the rose was a common medieval conceit which forms the bases of several surviving English carols and a multitude of Latin hymns." The editors state the Latin in the first three verses may be derived from the "Chirstmastide office (Introit) antiphone "Gaudeamus, omnes fedeles: Alvator noster natus est in mundum..." ("Rejoice, all we faithful, our Saviour is born into the world...").
There are also modern settings by John Joubert and Benjamin Britten among other composers.
Sources: Keyte, Hugh and Parrott, Andrew. The New Oxford Book of Carols," Oxford University Press, 1992: 28.
Disclaimer:The heading photo used above is from McDowell's website. We do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We will also obliged to add an photographer credit. The second photo is by Karina Lyburn and is a post on the Choir of King's College, Cambridge's Facebook page and also appears to be a photo on McDowell's website also. Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of the Lyburn photo under the DMCA.
