Program Notes December 7th and 8th, 2007 at 7:30

Ceremony of Carols is a collection of carols for boys' choir and harp. It begins with a procession, very simple, the choir in unison without accompaniment. The voices can be heard from afar and as they approach they become stronger. This reminds me of when I was a little girl in first grade. On the morning of the 13th of December when the sun was not yet up the whole school was gathered in the assembly hall. The lights were turned off and when all had gone silent we could faintly hear the voices of the the Lucia procession approaching slowly while singing and then appearing in their white gowns and with their lit candles. That was one of the most magical experiences of my childhood and being reminded by Benjamin Britten is beautiful.

After the opening Procession the music breaks into the more dramatic and complex Wolcum Yole! which is pure rejoicing. Then follows three quiet carols with an exquisite pureness and wintriness. It includes an ode to Mary, then a description of how she lulls the Child to sleep and then we hear her lullaby. That lullaby is the sweetest and most tender I know.

Reading the text, you might think that you are the victim of a sudden dyslexia, the text is like that - old and strange. It might actually be easier to understand the lyrics just by listening.

The Ceremony of Carols continues alternating between the quiet almost private songs that gives you a feeling of tender love granting warmth in freezing times (whether it be between mother and child or between God and his children), and the more official hymns of joy where multiple voices are set free in noisily rejoicing.

The suite ends with the Recession just like the Procession, just reversed so that the voices slowly disappear in the distance.

A Ceremony of Carols gives me the most condensed Christmas feeling. It is just beautiful.
- Comments by "Anna" at confidentialattachees.com

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. "Christmas Day" captures the excitement, anticipation, happiness, and hope that is always experienced every December 25th.

The text to the Carol O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles)Êand was intended to be a hymn, it is attributed to John Wade, an Englishman. The music to O Come All Ye Faithful was composed by fellow Englishman John Reading in the early 1700s. The tune was first published in a collection known as "Cantus Diversi" in 1751. In 1841 Rev. Frederick Oakley is reputed to have worked on the familiar translation of O Come All Ye Faithful which replaced the older Latin lyrics "Adeste Fideles".

In terra pax is probably Finzi's best known work. It is a setting of Robert Bridges' poem Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913 into which a portion of the Christmas story from the Gospel of St. Luke has been interpolated. Finzi began work on the piece in 1951 but it was not completed until 1954. Finzi gives the somewhat introspective words of the poem to the baritone solo, while the soprano solo and chorus take the part of the angels in the biblical text. The poem reminded Finzi greatly of a particular Christmas Eve party he had attended as a young man living on Chosen Hill Farm in Gloucestershire. They had all come out at midnight into the crisp, cold air, and had heard bells ringing across the countryside from all the villages. These bells became the wonderful "glory to God in the highest" section of In terra pax. After the baritone solo reflects on the angelic song, the chorus enters again, softly repeating "and on earth peace, good will toward men." In terra pax sadly figured indirectly in Finzi's death. During the Three Choirs Festival in 1956, Finzi took Vaughan Williams up to Chosen Hill to show him the spot where he had taken his inspiration for In terra pax. They stopped in at the sexton's cottage, unaware that the sexton's children had recently come down with chicken pox. Finzi, already severely weakened by Hodgkin's lymphoma, radiation therapy and an experimental splenectomy, contracted an encephalitic form of the disease and died on September 27, 1956.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was first published in 1833 when it appeared in "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern," a collection of seasonal carols gathered by William B. Sandys. The lyrics of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen are traditional olde English and are reputed to date back to the 15th century although the author is unknown.. It is believed that this particular carol was sung to the gentry by town watchmen who earned additional money during the Christmas season. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen continues to be enjoyed. The lyrics to this simple carol are reputed to be one of the oldest carols.

Fantasia on Christmas Carols is another Christmas classic which dates from 1912. It is a suite of four carols connected together that has a lovely medieval feeling. The baritone solo is very prominent and the chorus weaves a beautiful tapestry of sound around the solo. Based on well-known tunes such as "The First Nowell" as well as carols that will probably be familiar only to British listeners ("A Virgin Unspotted," "The Wassail Bough"), the Fantasia on Christmas Carols (1912) is a short work for baritone soloist, chorus, and orchestra. The traditional carols have a harmonic tinge that will be familiar from other works by this composer, and the music brims with Christmas spirit, progressing from a rather dark opening cello solo through the buoyant voices of a boys' choir to the ringing bells of the celebratory conclusion.

The author and composer of We Wish You a Merry Christmas cannot be traced however it is believed to date back to England in the sixteenth century. The tradition of carollers being given Christmas treats for singing to wealthy members of the community is reflected in this Christmas song - We Wish You a Merry Christmas! Over the years the fashion for figgy puddings mentioned in We Wish You a Merry Christmas has faded. But for the curious, the recipe consisted of the most important ingredient which was of course figs together with butter, sugar, eggs ,milk, rum, apple, lemon and orange peel, nuts, cinnamon, cloves and ginger! Not dissimilar to the modern day Christmas Puddings!