Carols and Wintry Songs
Categories: Arrangements for choir, Choiry Endeavours
Carols and Wintry Songs is the name of The Bridge Singers’ December concert. There’s some Christmassy music, but also some not-Christmassy music for a change. I’ll put the programme notes for the concert here and add in a few extra snippets of news and recordings from the concert on December 7th, the rehearsal beforehand and the party at the end of term! These extras will be in italics!
Three different perspectives on the winter season
Miri It Is. It’s a 13th century round, bemoaning the passing of summer and having a bit of a whine about the miserable weather, albeit in a robust manner, musically speaking.
Coventry Carol. The Christmas story in song from the 16th century
Winter (Largo). This is part of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concertos for string orchestra composed around 1720. This is the middle movement of the Winter concerto. Each of the four concerti has an accompanying poem. The bit that goes with our movement considers the driving rain outside while we are snug by the fire inside. In the original, the flowing melody is accompanied by violins, cellos and violas being plucked in a spiky sort of sound – we can also sound as though we’re plucking our strings, I think you’ll agree!
Silent Night. Something for you to join in with! It was first performed in Austria on Christmas Eve in 1818. A parish priest (Joseph Mohr) brought his poem to a local musician (Franz Gruber), asking for a tune for voices with guitar accompaniment, as the organ in his church has been damaged in a flood.
Three songs for our friends who have died in the last year or so: Margaret, Carol, and Gillian We sang at all three of their funerals or memorial services and miss them greatly.
A Virgin Most Pure. This traditional English Carol was one of Margaret’s favourites. She voted for it in our Christmas poll of favourite songs last year, but it did not make the final 80 minutes of music. We’d previously sung it in 2022. Tonight, it will be performed by a small ensemble with solos from Julie, Rebekah, Penny, Richard and Peter.
Knit Me Together. Psalm 139 was one of Carol’s favourites. After her funeral, her husband Richard asked Cheryl to set certain parts of the psalm to music for the choir to sing. We all associate Carol with her knitting – it was referred to several times at her memorial service by people from all walks of her life. This world premiere performance will be given by Rebekah, Cheryl, Jamie and Connor
Unto Us Is Born A Son. Gillian’s daughter Jackie tells this tale: “On 23rd December 1998, I was expecting my second child, a week before my due date and in slow labour. I didn’t want to tell Mum because she was always a worrier, but Kevin let slip that our son’s arrival was fairly imminent. Off went Mum to the Carol Concert because she didn’t want to let people down (typical of her) although her concentration was not going to be great under the circumstances. She was just about managing to sing the programme until the words “Unto us is born a son”…. She said she completely lost it after that! Calum finally arrived just after midnight!” This arrangement of what was originally a 14th century German carol was made by Cheryl for today’s concert she’s joined again by Rebekah, Jamie and Connor to perform it.
If you’d like to find out more about Knit Me Together, have a look here! Song Stories: Knit Me Together
In The Bleak Midwinter. It’s the Vaughan Williams setting of Christina Rosetti’s poem, and do please join in with us!
A couple of operatic numbers
Choeur des Tremblants. It was composed in 1677 by Jean-Baptiste Lully and is part of his opera “Isis”. Essentially the tenors and basses of the choir are so cold that they shiver as they sing, and struggle to get their French words out of their mouths.
Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind. Well it’s not really from an opera, but the lyrics are from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Composer Thomas Arne set them to music in 1740. This arrangement is performed by the sopranos and altos.
Three songs about the three kings
Puer Natus In Bethlehem. This is a 17th Century setting of a 13th century tune by German composer Samuel Scheidt. It’s a very joyful setting and the choir has to divide itself into eight parts to sing it. Our glorious 1st sopranos get to sing each phrase first, but then the other seven parts come bursting in to give it a very exuberant feel. There are actually 13 verses telling the Christmas tale, but we’re only singing 4 of them – the kings bits!
The Three Kings. It’s a carol by 19th century German composer Peter Cornelius with a beautifully flowing melody and a hymn-like accompaniment. Our three soloists for this are Rebekah, Connor and Jamie.
Lo The Eastern Magi Rise – This folk carol was written in the mid nineteenth century by Jehoiada Brewer and Samuel Stanley who resided in Birmingham and Sheffield, and was sung by working people, not necessarily in churches. It made its way to Cornwall and across with migrants to the USA. The bass part in this version is particularly buoyant and tuneful!
Interval
Three popular songs about winter
I Am A Rock – It’s a strident song by Paul Simon from 1965. The lyrics indicate a grumpy person who seems to revel in his grumpiness.
Ring Out Solstice Bells. It’s a Jethro Tull song from 1977. There are lots of lively rhythms and opportunities for you to join in with the clapping.
California Dreamin’. This one takes us back to 1963 when the songwriters John and Michelle Phillips from The Mamas and Papas were staying in a snowy New York and missing sunny old California.
O Little Town Of Bethlehem. Another one for you to help us with. Go on! Sing along with us!
Three songs from Handel’s Messiah
Georg Friedrich Handel was a German composer, living and working in London for most of his career. The Messiah was composed in 1741 and first performed in Dublin. The whole work, which contains three parts, each in turn containing several movements. The three parts can by roughly boiled down thus: Part 1: Christmas; Part 2: Easter – Ascension; Part 3: Redemption – Day of Judgement. We’re singing one segment from Part 1 and two from Part 2:
He Shall Feed His Flock. This one flows along.
Their Sound Is Gone Out. This one is like a fanfare.
How Beautiful Are The Feet. This one flows along too, but for not as long
Three folky wintry songs
The Winter’ll Soon Be Over. It’s a cheerful-sounding and optimistic spiritual, with winter being a metaphor for the current grim time.
For St. John’s Day. It’s mostly about pies – the pies that might be consumed on St. John The Evangelist’s Day (December 27th). The lyrics are from the 1661 manuscript, New Carols for this Merry Time of Christmas. The traditional tune is called Sellenger’s Round and has been charmed into this boisterous and dramatic arrangement especially for us by Margaret Watchorn. This is the world premiere of this one!
Apple Tree Wassail. It’s a folk carol from Somerset, and is one of many wassailing songs which form part of the annual blessing of the orchards on or around Twelfth Night to encourage the trees to hopefully produce more apples in the autumn.
Here’s a video of a few snippets of the concert and a few photos from our intrepid audience. Storm Darrah was raging outside as you might hear on some of the recordings!
And here are a clutch of the animated posters we made to advertise our Carols and Wintry Songs concert:
It was such a good concert, despite the storm raging around us, and the diminished yet enthusiastic and appreciative audience. We sing such a varied selection of music, old, modern, pop (ish), religious, secular, but most importantly we also sing music written especially for us by our wonderful MD. Always challenging and always beautiful. Thank you Cheryl!