Paul Archibald Sounding Out

Performances of Christmas music at concerts, in churches, at shopping malls, on streets and in private gatherings are a staple of the Christmas season in many cultures across the world. The programme this week offers a wide selection of music over the last three hundred years that celebrates the joy of Christmas.

Karl Jenkins (b. 1944)
Stella Natalis: Celebro
Tenebrae
Marylebone Camerata
Adiemus Singers

John Taverner (1944-2013)
The Lamb
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (conductor)

Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901-1947)
Carol Symphony: Allegro energico
Pro Arte Orchestra
Barry Rose (conductor)

JS Bach (1685-1750)
Christmas Oratorio
Part 6 No 64:
English Baroque Soloists
Monteverdi Choir
Sir John Eliot Gardner (conductor)

Sir Karl Jenkins is amongst the most performed living composers – a multi-instrumentalist, jazz musician and collaborator with many musical icons such as Elton John, George Harrison and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He has been awarded17 gold and platinum discs for his output and as a composer he recognises no boundaries – musical, commercial, geographical, or cultural. His way of composing is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times. Stella natalis (‘star of birth’, ‘star of origin’) conveys the Christmas message of peace, goodwill and compassion and draws on the Old Testament, Zulu text and reference to Hindu gods. The scoring is for mixed chorus with an optional second chorus suitable for children’s voices, and trumpet, keyboards, percussion and string orchestra.

John Tavener is known for his extensive output of choral religious works. During his career he became one of the best known and popular composers of his generation, most particularly for Song for Athene which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana. The Lamb is a choral work written in 1982 and is a setting of music to the William Blake poem The Lamb from Blake’s collection of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789). It is one of Tavener’s best known works.

Written for unaccompanied SATB choir, the music is minimalistic and combines chromaticism with more conventional harmony. Premiered in Winchester Cathedral on 22 December 1982, it was also performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, on Christmas Eve of the same year. The Lamb has since become a common part of church services, especially around Christmas and also featured in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino’s film The Great Beauty.

Victor Hely-Hutchinson made a musical career in the BBC during the early part of the 20th century rising to Director of Music of the BBC in succession to Arthur Bliss. He was born in Cape Town and educated at Eton and eventually studied conducting with Adrian Boult at the Royal College of Music, London. Hely-Hutchinson’s compositions were varied including his Piano Quintet, String Quartet and a Sonata for Viola and Piano. However, it was his work for orchestra which was most popular in its day including the Variations, Intermezzo and Finale, given its British premiere at the 1927 Proms, and a Symphony for Small Orchestra performed in the 1947 Proms. Best remembered is the Carol Symphony, a suite of four choral preludes, each based on a well-loved Christmas carol, brilliantly harmonised and scored. First heard in 1929, it has become his legacy and is a much-played addition to the orchestral Christmas repertoire

The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio iin six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance in a church service on a feast day of the Christmas period. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a largely lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The next complete public performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The work belongs to a group of three oratorios written in 1734 and 1735 for major feasts, the other two works being the Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 and the Easter Oratorio BWV 249. The running time for the entire oratorio is around three hours.