by

Advent Calendar Day 14 – O Little One Sweet (J.S. Bach)

Did I mention that I’m really, really into Bach at the moment?  The fact that this is the second bit of Bach you are getting in this Advent Calendar might be a clue (and it’s not the last, either – I’m not going to let you get to Christmas without at least a little peek at the Christmas Oratorio).

I loved this carol well before I knew it was Bach’s arrangement because of the utterly gorgeous – and in places totally counterintuitive – alto line.  As an alto, I am always delighted when a composer gives me something more interesting than a row of Fs (which is one reason I am all over both polyphony and Baroque music). Actually, the weirdness of the opening bar should have alerted me to its composer, now I think about it.  No other 17th century composer would do that to their alto section (20th century composers have no mercy on anyone, of course, but the results are rarely so beautiful). This is such a beautiful thing to sing, and I love the way the harmonies cross over.

I listened to a few versions of this, but eventually had to choose this performance by The King’s Singers.  One of the reasons Bach can be difficult to sing (aside from his counterintuitive key changes) is that he didn’t really write for the human voice as an instrument – he wrote music that happened to use voices as a medium.  (This is not hyperbole on my part – unlike composers such as Handel or Purcell, Bach didn’t really care what voices could or couldn’t do, he cared about what the music was supposed to do, and his singers just had to put up with that.  Later in life, he wrote several pieces for no instrument at all – just pure music.)

So it seems fitting to reflect the purity of Bach’s musical vision with The King’s Singers, who sing everything with a clear tone that is as close to pure music as anything I’ve heard.

(And really, make sure you listen to that alto line.  It’s being sung by the second chap from the left and he is really enjoying it, as well he should.  You should, too.)

 

by

Advent Calendar Day 13 – The 12 Days of Christmas – a Conductor’s Christmas Nightmare, and Dear Nola (Solomons, Kelly)

It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for more 12 Days of Christmas-themed silliness!

You get two videos for the price of one today, because I couldn’t decide which of these I wanted to feature.

On the one hand, we have Frank Kelly, with his classic ‘Dear Nola’ spoken word letter, in which Nola is simply too generous with her gifts, and we learn that birds do not belong in the house.  (This has the advantage of continuing the birds theme we’ve had going for the last few days, which is never a bad thing.)  But, if you are like me, you probably heard the LP of this every Christmas when you were little, so this is all familiar territory to you.

And then on the other hand we have David Solomons, who has written a piece called ‘The Conductor’s 12-Day Christmas Nightmare’, which is a fairly accurate description of what church and community choirs can be like.  My favourite part is the bit where five sang in tune, though the chorus of ‘sorry!’s at the end is also a highlight.  And also something that is frequently heard in the choirs I am involved in.

Enjoy your Friday!  It’s Christmas parties galore where I work today, so I hope yours is as much fun.

by

Advent Calendar Day 12 – Carol of the Birds (James and Wheeler)

In addition to being the 10th of December and the 12th day of Advent, today is my sister-in-law Tanya’s birthday!  Happy birthday Tan!  Tanya is extremely fond of Australian birds, and so there was only one possible Christmas Carol to post today, even if it’s a little early in the season for it, and that is the Carol of the Birds.

I have a great fondness for the carols William James wrote to lyrics by John Wheeler. As an Australian, all the winter solstice symbolism embedded in both church and secular Christmas traditions is kind of out of place.  (Our minister last year replaced the advent candles with vases into which he poured water, which makes a much better metaphor in our climate – flames in our summer are decidedly unwanted.  Water in the desert is another matter.)  And I get a bit cranky after the fifth time I hear ‘Frosty the Snowman’ played in the supermarket when it’s 35°C outside.  Don’t get me wrong – I love a good rendition of In the Bleak Midwinter as much as the next woman, but there are many, many snow-based carols that I could gladly live without.  (Sometimes, it’s hard not to feel like the whole Northern hemisphere is mocking us…)

So carols with Australian bush birds, and drovers on dry Australian plains watching black swans fly overhead, or red dust and leaves being blown by hot northerly winds, or even stars shining in dark desert skies with brown moths fluttering in the light, feel very refreshing to me.  Which, since I am an urban girl, is probably as inappropriate as carols about snow, but these carols do feel more like home.  The underlying awareness of heat and dryness feels right.  And, of course, most of us sing these carols at some point in primary school, so there is a definite nostalgia aspect to this (though if you’ve ever heard a bunch of ten year olds reaching for that ‘orana’… well, let’s just say that it’s a pretty good imitation of what a sulfur-crested cockatoo sounds like, and leave it at that.)

I recently found out that William James, who wrote this carol and several other Australian favourites, was also the church organist and Music Director at the church I do most of my singing at.  So that’s a nice connection, too.

 

 

by

Advent Calendar Day 11 – El Cant Dels Ocells

I was going to post this song later in the week, but given my accidental Basque theme, I couldn’t resist adding some Catalan to the mix.  This piece is a traditional Catalan carol which I found by accident when looking for a different bird-related carol in honour of my sister-in-law’s birthday tomorrow.  (Happy pre-birthday, Tan!)  It’s hard to find a perfect arrangement of this one, but I think my favourite one is this one, sung by a Catalonian boys’ choir. I love their soloist, and the gentle harmonies of the arrangement.

If you are partial to a more operatic / romantic version of this piece, then here’s a version in English, sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale. Lyrics are below. It’s rather a lovely translation, but obviously the demands of scansion kept it from being a very literal one. There is, however, a pretty good translation on Wikipedia.

“When in the Eastern skies the wondrous star did rise and fill the earth with splendor, came birds in joyful throng to sound their dainty song in a carol sweet and tender. Hosanna to the child and to his mother mild, full reverently to render! 

The kingly eagle came to praise his holy name in mighty proclamation. The sparrow then replied, “tonight is Christmastide, a night of jubilation.” Then robin redbreast sang , “now death has lost its sting, in Christ is our salvation.” 

The nightingale sang sweet, the lovely babe to greet, in Mary’s arms he’s lying. The cuckoo and the quail flew over hill and dale in admiration vying. The barn owl’s eyes were dim, such radiance blinded him, and homeward he went flying.”

And if you’d just like an instrumental version on cello with pretty pictures of birds, try this one. It’s pretty gorgeous.

Except that actually, that last one has a bit more to it than that.   I didn’t realise this when I started hunting for bird-related carols, but this particular song – and particularly the version by Pau Casals – became emblematic of both peace and of Catalonian independence.  You can read what he had to say about it here.

(Nope, I wasn’t expecting politics on this blog either.  Sorry.  But it was turning into a rather large elephant in a very small room, and not acknowledging it seemed worse…)

 

 

by

Advent Calendar Day 10 – Gabriel’s Message (Joshua Shank)

I seem to have a bit of an accidental Basque theme going this week – yesterday’s carol was a contemporary setting of an old text by a Basque composer, and today’s carol is a traditional Basque carol.  I’ve always loved this piece of music, even in my primary school days when we used to giggle about the chorus (to this day, I have to work hard not to sing ‘most highly flavoured gravy’ instead of ‘most highly favoured lady’).  It’s such a lovely melody, and the harmonies are gorgeous – I love the way you have to wait for the dissonances to resolve. Also, I just like Mary songs.  (I should probably be Catholic.  Except that I would be a terrible Catholic.)

I’m teaching this to my work choir at present, and they are loving it too.  And doing a much better job than I am of singing the proper words.

I was going to give you a traditional arrangement of this piece, but then I got completely captured by this fascinating version by Joshua Shank, in which he tries to paint the scene of the annunciation with music.  It’s stunning – there is such a feeling of light and brightness in this piece, and somehow the way Gabriel’s words are set, with different voices and rhythms against each other, make me think of Madeleine L’Engle’s depiction of the cherubim as this unfathomable beast with so many eyes and wings that it almost seems plural even though it is only one creature.  Very otherworldly, and a bit intimidating and even overwhelming, as an angel should be.

Also, it’s rather lovely to hear a verse in the original Basque.  None of the other arrangements I’ve heard do that.

If you’ve never heard the piece before, my serving suggestion is to start by listening to either this version, sung by The Sixteen, or to this ethereal arrangement by All Angels, so that you can see where Shank’s arrangement is departing from.

And if you know this carol and hate it and want to see violence done to it, allow me to recommend to your attention this version, sung by Sting.  My husband claims that it isn’t so bad, but actually, he’s wrong about that.  It’s a shocker.  And yet, somehow, I can’t resist sharing it anyway…

(Oh my, and I just looked up the composer and he was born in 1980.  I feel ancient now.  Also inadequate.  How can anyone born in 1980 possibly be old enough to be writing music like that?)

by

Advent Calendar Day 9 – O Magnum Mysterium (Javier Busto)

Every Advent, I go looking for O Magnum Mysterium online, and every year I find that yet another composer has written his (or her, but so far I think only his) setting to this text (or rather, that their setting is now on YouTube), and then I have the nigh-impossible task of picking just one to write about here.

This year, my new favourite is this dramatic setting by Javier Busto.  Who, it turns out, is a contemporary of my parents, and hails from the Basque region.  My parents do not hail from the Basque region, which is probably why they do not compose dramatic church music.

I fell in love with the half-whispered section at the beginning, that amazing crescendo at the end, and the liveliness of the performance generally – most other versions online are much more calming and sedate, probably because they are being sung in church, but I think the drama of the music demands more.  Also, and this has nothing to do with the music, but how gorgeous are the choir’s outfits?  I want to join that choir just so I can wear a skirt like that.  And let’s just give three cheers for the delight of having a choir that comes from the Southern Hemisphere!

The lyrics translate to ‘Oh great mystery and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord.  Alleluia!’.  Lots of good stuff there, and I can quite see why everyone wants to write their own version of this piece…

 

 

by

Advent Calendar Day 8 – The Record of John (Orlando Gibbons)

I make no apology for including this piece of music again, even though I include it in my Advent Calendar every year.  I’ve sung the alto solo (really a countertenor solo) in The Record of John on the first Sunday of Advent every year for the better part of a decade, and to me, it doesn’t feel like Advent until I hear those opening bars on the piano.  The song has a real weight of expectation to it, and the melody is crafted so perfectly to the natural inflections of speech that the lyrics are incredibly easy to sing expressively.  I love it dearly.

Very sadly, I won’t be singing this piece in 2015, either as soloist or as choir member, which was one of the reasons I decided to revive the Advent Calendar after a year’s hiatus.  It’s a melancholy pleasure listening to it instead of singing it, but this is an excellent recording.  I’d love to find a good recording with a female soloist, but so far the internet has failed to provide.

Maybe next year…

by

Advent Calendar Day 7 – Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Vaughan Williams)

Today’s post was going to be the gorgeous King’s Singers version of The Truth Sent From Above, but then I realised that it might be better to save my crush on the King’s Singers for later in December.  Besides, I’m pretty sure I do The Truth Sent From Above every year, and every version misses the verses about eating the apple, leaving one with the progression from ‘woman was made with man to dwell’ to ‘thus we were born to endless woe’, implying a line of causation that I find a little insulting (if nonetheless amusing).

Anyway.

I’ve been vaguely aware for some time that Vaughan Williams did a Fantasia on Christmas Carols that started with a version of the Truth Sent From Above, but for one reason or another, I’ve never got around to listening to it.  This year, I have, and it’s rather lovely – and, importantly, doesn’t skip those all important apple-eating verses!

Of course, this is not the only carol in the Fantasia, and Vaughan Williams has pulled together a number of the more obscure and folky Christmas carols in the English tradition into a rather lovely ten minutes of choral music.  I especially like the bit when the Sussex Carol keeps on coming in and interposing itself on other carols.

I believe the baritone soloist in this recording is Stephen Roberts – whoever he is, he really has a lovely, effortless sound, which fits this piece very well.

by

Advent Calendar Day 6 – 12 Days of Christmas Confusion

A bit of a change of pace today, because Friday is a day for Frivolity, or at least for taking a break from fruit-themed carols.  Though, of course, there is a little bit of fruit in this carol too.

The Twelve Days of Christmas is not an Advent Carol (in fact, it is referring to the 12 days between December 25th and January 6th, so it is decidedly post-Advent), but it is well known, and, as it turns out, is also the sort of carol that begs for parody.  Some of the parodies are alarmingly sexist (nope, not linking to that one), and others are just a bit of downunder fun for those of us who are in entirely the wrong season and don’t really know what partridges look like.

And then you get the really clever stuff, like this gorgeous Twelve Days of Christmas Confusion, in which the choir is arguing with itself, singing entirely different carols, and occasionally forgetting which particular feast it’s celebrating, all in perfect tune.

I believe that this particular piece was composed by Straight No Chaser, but I rather love the version by Angel City Chorale – it’s the girly backing vocals in the last bit that appeal.  Though Straight No Chaser has significantly more dreidel.  It’s a hard choice, but someone has to make it…

Happy Friday!

by

Advent Calendar Day 5 – The Cherry Tree Carol (Hunt)

Maintaining this week’s theme of fruit (hey, sometimes you just have to embrace these things), here’s a carol that comes from a genre I am hereby dubbing ‘Medieval Bible Filk’, or possibly ‘Medieval Bible Fanfic’.  It’s inspired by the New Testament (specifically from the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, something I didn’t even knew existed until I looked it up), but it isn’t strictly canon, and it clearly comes from the mind of someone who was sitting there during a sermon one day and thought ‘well, it’s all very well for Mary to say that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, but I bet Joseph wasn’t too happy about that.’

(Incidentally, I’ve been told that churches dedicated to St Joseph are pretty rare in Italy, because the perception was that Joseph, for all his holiness, was also kind of a cuckold, and this didn’t sit well with the sort of men who were providing money to build churches.  Poor Joseph just can’t win.)

In this carol, Mary is pregnant, and she is craving cherries.  Since she is in a cherry orchard with Joseph, this seems like an easy fix, and she asks Joseph to pick some cherries for her.  Joseph is evidently having a bad day, because his response is that if she wants cherries so much, she should ask the guy who got her pregnant to pick them for her.  At this point, either the cherry tree bows down of its own accord, or the baby in Mary’s womb commands it to do so.  Mary gets her cherries, Joseph apologises, and everyone lives happily ever after.  There are a LOT of versions of this, but I love the mix of voices in this one.

The song doesn’t paint poor Joseph in a very good light, but clearly it had significant popular appeal, because there are lots of different versions not just of the tune, but of the text, with Joseph attaining varying levels of snarkiness, and Mary’s triumph when the cherry tree bends down to her being illustrated in greater or lesser degrees.  There are versions which go all the way through to anticipating Easter, versions where Joseph himself asks the tree to bow down to Mary, versions where Joseph starts conversing with the babe in the womb and Mary is just a side issue to the whole story, and versions with no cherries at all (still part of the same carol sequence, allegedly).  There’s a great article on the carol here, if you are interested – I fell down an internet rabbit hole reading it, though, so be warned. I suspect the appeal comes from the very human light in which the Holy Family is painted – grumpy Joseph, Mary with her cravings and her ‘heavy load’.

Incidentally, that appeal apparently hasn’t faded.  While looking for a version of the carol to share with you, I found not just a version by Joan Baez (a folk classic) but versions by Sting (regrettable, but entertaining) and by Annie Lennox (a version with absolutely no cherries in it, but great fun, and with a bonus African children’s choir on backing vocals).