For Christmas 2022, The Bridge Singers presented two concerts: one at the beginning of December, with all songs on theme of Mary, and one on January 6th for Epiphany. In the Epiphany concert we sang a a range of old and new repertoire including some new arrangements for both choir and brass quintet. This blog is about those Epiphany arrangements, with one bonus Mary song!

Do You Hear What I Hear? – This song, which tells the entire Christmas story (including the kings: Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, Do you know what I know? In your palace warm, mighty king. Do you know what I know? A Child, a Child shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold) was written in 1962 by Gloria Shayne and Noel Regney in response to a request for a song about peace at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s been recorded by lots of different artists and first became a hit when Bing Crosby sang it in 1963. This is an ethereal and other-worldly arrangement for brass quintet. Listen for the tune played on the tuba!

This arrangement is available to purchase at Sheetmusicplus:

Do You Hear What I Hear by Carole King – Horn – Digital Sheet Music | Sheet Music Plus

Jesus, Freddie Mercury. I jiggled the verses around a bit to make the three wise men come in at the beginning as well as in their actual verse 3, so that it fitted with our Epiphany theme. The arrangement is unaccompanied so I reduced the size of the guitar break section! The song is from Queen’s debut album in 1973.

This arrangement is available to purchase at Sheetmusicplus:

Jesus by Freddie Mercury – Choir – Digital Sheet Music | Sheet Music Plus

You can hear a snippet of The Bridge Singers’ performance here:

Magno Gaudens Gaudio– This is one of several songs found in an old 12^th century manuscript, which was within a few years of its production, dismantled and used as fly leaves in another book. This book remained preserved in a nobleman’s library for another 600 years until the song book pages were noticed and re-assembled. The song commemorates the Slaughter of The Innocents by Herod, and celebrates Herod’s subsequent death. The arrangement becomes increasing insistent and scrunchy.

Here’s a snippet of The Bridge Singers’ performance:

Patapan – This is a Burgundian song, first published in 1720. The title refers to the sound of an accompanying drum as “the men of olden days, for the King of Kings to praise”.  The brass players imitate the drums in this short but lively arrangement – there are a lot of notes to fit into a minute and a half! Here’s a snippet from the performance by Westfield Brass Quintet:

The King –This song is sometimes called The Wren, and if you don’t want to read a slightly distressing story about its origins, then move to the next song now! In olden times, (and not that olden – it was still happening, they say, at the beginning of the 20^th century) , a wren, considered the king of winter birds, was killed and adorned with ribbons and the like after Christmas, and paraded around the town in merry fashion. The “wrenboys” knocked on doors collecting money “to see the king”. This song, which was heard and written down in Pembrokeshire would be sung at the houses to encourage a more generous hand-out! In this arrangement, a feature is increasingly made of the next to last phrase.

Here’s a fragment of The Bridge Singers’ performance:

We Three Kings. The choir first recorded this arrangement with brass quintet accompaniment and descant in 2020 – one of our lockdown recordings. It was made at the request of the vicar in our village who wanted some help for his remote services that Christmas. That video is below:

Here’s the full programme from our Epiphany concert with a few more extracts:

Jesus, Freddie Mercury 
Intrada On Regent Square, Kenneth Downie 
Angels From The Realms Of Glory, Trad. French 
The Three Kings, Peter Cornelius 
Omnes de Saba, Jakob Handl 
Omnes de Saba, Cheryl Camm 
Personent Hodie, Germany 14th Century 
Epiphany Poem, George Mackay Brown (reading)
Nun Seid Ihr Wohl Gerochen, J.S. Bach 
Puer Natus In Bethlehem, Samuel Scheidt 
On To Bethlehem Town, David Evans 
We Three Kings, J.H Hopkins
Twelfth Night, Laurie Lee (reading)
Do You Hear What I Hear?, Gloria Shayne
Lo The Eastern Magi Rise, Jehoiada Brewer/Samuel Stanley
Patapan, Bernard de la Monnoye
Coventry Carol, England  16th Century
Unto Us Is Born A Son, Anon 14th Century
The Light of the World,  Dean Goffin
Excerpt from A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas (reading)
The King, Trad. Wales
Magno Gaudens Gaudio, England 12th Century
Wassail Song, Trad. England
As With Gladness Men Of Old, C. Kocher 

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!

On To Bethlehem Town or Tua Bethlem Dref. It’s a gentle Welsh carol composed by David Evans (1874-1948). Here’s an extract from the 2023 Epiphany performance:

Omnes de Saba by me! The video below is of the SSAA version, but we sang the SATB version in 2023. Here’s a snippet of that:

And here’s a bonus song and extract from our Mary-themed concert before Christmas 2022. It’s Madre Che Festi, which is a Medieval Italian song, and is combined here with a tarantella played on recorders.