A Carol Celebration of Christmas
Saturday, December 7, 1996 at 8:00 pm.
Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols ; A Shepherd's Carol ; A Hymn to the Virgin
Bodenschatz: Joseph, lieber Joseph mein
Burt: Bright, Bright the Holly Berries
Costeley: Allon gay, gay, gay, Bergeres
Holst: Christmas Day; Lullay my Liking
Howells: A Spotless Rose
Joubert: Hymn to the Virgin
Kodály: Veni, veni Emmanuel
Leontovich/Wilhousky: Carol of the Bells
Mathias: Sir Christèmas
Niles: I Wonder as I Wander
Parker/Shaw: Hacia Belén va un borrico
Rutter: Il est né le divin enfant
Vaughan Williams: The Blessed Son of God
Texts and translations
Program Notes
A Music Director's program planning goes far beyond merely selecting the works which eventually are performed in concert. Such things as the key progressions between works, motivic resonances in texts, contrasts in emotional content, number of performers, solo requirements, accompaniments, languages, acoustics, all play roles. Tonight's concert is no different, and perhaps even more challenging from a programming perspective: many short works of differing styles, sung in several languages, some accompanied, some not, plus the need to present a larger work made up of smaller sections, accompanied by harp, and beginning and ending with the chorus off-stage, all of this knit together to present a pleasing and logical progression of music from beginning to end.
Tonight's "solution" to this conundrum has resulted in our program's two "halves" being of unequal length. This is surely not worrisome to most of our audience, but it was felt important enough an anomaly to explain. The aim of tonight's plan is to present Britten's A Ceremony of Carols at a place on tonight's program that allows its beginning and end to be performed as the composer directs, yet allows for a reasonably equal program length both before and after intermission. With luck, our diverse program will then musically and dramatically "work" on both sides of the intermission.
Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols enjoys such popularity that it has run the danger of becoming a "chestnut" of the holiday season. Its surface felicities are many and create immediate accessibility. But when one examines the care and craftsmanship in the setting of the poetry employed, it becomes clear that there is much more here to be reckoned with than just a pleasant set of Christmas carols.
Written originally for a chorus of treble voices in 1942, it was later recast for SATB chorus by Julius Harrison, a friend and associate of the composer. In this form, the work gains color and richness of sonority without sacrificing one iota of poignancy. In fact, there are several differences between the two versions beside the obvious ones necessitated by the expansion of the vocal range. Certain vocal doublings are altered, voice leadings strengthened, and harmonies more solidly fixed -- all changes which enrich the overall impression of the work. While some listeners may prefer the cool and chaste sound inherent in treble voices, the SATB setting offered tonight surely allows a broader range of expression and sonority.
Beginning with a procession in chant and in Latin, the text tells of the angels' and archangels' rejoicing in the birth of Christ. The first somewhat secular carol, "Wolcum Yole!" depicts a procession of revelers welcoming the holiday season. "There is no Rose" is a ravishing setting of the familiar "rose-as-symbol-for-Mary" metaphor, alternately employing English and Latin, and sensuously swinging between duple and triple meter. A medieval tone pervades"That Yongë Child," set hauntingly for sopranos and harp. It is followed immediately by the richly harmonized lullaby "Balulalow" in a gently rocking 6/4 - 3/2 meter. "As Dew in Aprille" is a joyful waltz-like hymn of praise to Mary, which segues to "This Little Babe," an exciting, stretto-filled portrait of Christ as valiant warrior and stalwart guardian against sin.
The following "Interlude," an ethereal solo for harp, provides welcome respite from the bustle of the previous carol. An ingenious variation on the theme heard first in the Processional, this brief moment of repose suspends time and creates a palpably still and meditative atmosphere with the harp's stopped harmonics and light, rippling arpeggios.
Britten has set this mood for a reason: the next carol, "In Freezing Winter Night" is perhaps the emotional core of the work. It begins with a chilly depiction of the frosty evening in Bethlehem with a crystalline ostinato accompaniment. The choir reflects this chill at first, then warms toward the middle and end of the carol as the poignant text refers to the humble pomp brought from heaven by the Child.
"Spring Carol" and "Deo Gracias" bring us back to earth with an almost Orff-like rhythmic intensity; first, a swaying 6/8 welcome to Spring, and then a driving, jazzy and joyful romp which celebrates the fall of Adam and Eve as the seminal event for a much more propitious occasion -- in fact, the ultimate reason for Christ's birth -- the redemption of mankind.
Therefore, as the text demands, we should sing "Deo gracias" -- Thanks be to God! But the work is not yet finished. As he had in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Britten brings us back to the music that began the Ceremony, the Latin chant Hodie Christus natus est. And as the choir recedes into the distance we're left to contemplate in their haunting echoes the richness and variety that came before.
One word about language. Dr. Eugene Green of the English Department at Boston University has helped coach The Spectrum Singers in the pronunciation of three types of early English in the poetry employed by the composer. If the language you hear is not quite what you might have expected, you're right, and this is why.
The plan of our concert's second half is to present a brief survey of carol-based Christmas works from different Western cultures. Beginning with our own country, Alfred Burt's deserved reputation as America's most accomplished Christmas carol composer of the last half-century is cheerfully reinforced by Bright, Bright the Holly Berries. The Appalachian carol I Wonder as I Wander is offered in a particularly poignant arrangement by John Jacob Niles, who in the Thirties described himself as a "Mountaineer Tenor" and was among the first to undertake a comprehensive study of the roots of American folk music. Moving to Great Britain, two splendid works by Holst offer particularly affecting music celebrating Mary and Jesus.
Christmas Day is a wonderment -- a finely crafted and superbly realized set of variations on the chorale In dulci jubilo. Portions of the well-known carols "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" and "The First Noël," and a lively old Breton melody to which Holst sets the text "Come Ye Lofty, Come Ye Lowly," are ingeniously woven into the texture of the work. Gustav Holst's great gifts of expression and his extraordinary grasp of how to move the listener with particularly touching harmonic progressions are very much in evidence throughout this small masterpiece.
John Joubert -- British trained but South African by birth -- is less known but highly regarded in England for his finely wrought works for chorus. His Hymn to the Virgin is the first of a three-carol set written in 1984 for Sheffield Cathedral.
Five carol arrangements from Europe will next be heard, and one original work -- Guillaume Costeley's charming Allon, gay, gay, gay, Bergeres, sung tonight in sixteenth-century French. Particularly lovely are Zoltán Kodály's 1943 setting of Veni, veni Emmanuel, which exhibits this composer's unmistakable gifts for inventive harmony, and John Rutter's 1967 homage to the traditional French melody Il est né le divin enfant.
We return to Great Britain for our concluding group and offer three contemplative masterworks and one good-natured lusty shout of joy. The surface simplicity of Britten's A Shepherd's Carol only momentarily distracts from the work's spiritual profundity. Auden's mysterious, symbolic verse deftly enhances the emotion of this most unusual and moving composition. Herbert Howells' A Spotless Rose is beloved for its graceful ease of rejoicing and its extraordinary final cadence, which was especially admired by Ralph Vaughan Williams. His The Blessed Son of God, a carol from his choral/orchestral masterwork Hodie, frames a very personal prayer for mercy and offers a particularly ravishing final cadence of its own. We close with William Mathias' festive Sir Christèmas, the final words of which express our holiday sentiments as singers to all of you for the joyous season just arrived and tonight fittingly welcomed.
Copyright (c) 1996 by John W. Ehrlich
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