What is it that makes it such a perennial favourite?’ (read more…) ‘The one Christmas carol without which a Christmas service wouldn’t seem complete. ‘ Corde natus ex parentis’ was written by Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, who lived in northern Spain from, roughly, 350 to 400 AD.’ ( read more…) 8. ‘Few carols have words that can be traced back as early as this. Five of the best modern Christmas carols.‘American readers might have first heard this exquisite miniature masterpiece in a Volvo advertisement, yet it was originally written for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge for their 1987 service of Nine Lessons and Carols.’ (read more…) ‘Every year, one King’s College, Cambridge chorister is chosen to open the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with the exposed solo verse of Once in Royal in front of a packed chapel… and several million radio listeners.’ ( read more about the Christmas carol and the lyrics here…) 10. ‘From the cheery opening ‘On Christmas Night’ to the final triumphant ‘Amen!’, this carol is one of celebration.’ ( read more about the ‘Sussex Carol’ and find its lyrics here …) 11. The best recordings of Schubert’s Winterreise.‘Of Poulenc’s four Christmas motets, the first is the most solemn, the most haunting and has consistently proved the most popular since they were published in 1952.’ (read more…) Listen to our playlist of the Greatest Christmas carols of all time here 13. ‘In 1739 Charles Wesley wrote a Christmas hymn that began ‘Hark! how all the welkin rings, Glory to the King of Kings’, the first incarnation of what is now Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.’ (read more about the carol and lyrics here…) Five of the best ancient Christmas carols.‘Did 16th-century Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria study under the great Palestrina? While we can’t be sure, the fluid counterpoint of his 1572 motet O Magnum Mysterium is worthy of the Italian master himself.’ (read more…) ‘Named ‘the world’s greatest living composer and conductor of choral music’ by US television station NBC, there’s no denying Rutter’s skill at seducing both choirs and audiences alike’ (read more…) 15. Six of the best King’s Singers recordings.‘ Poulenc’s joyous Hodie Christus Natus Est brings the Frenchman’s set of Four Christmas Motets to an ebulliently rowdy conclusion.’ (read more…) Hodie Christus Natus est by composer Poulenc ‘British composer Michael Head, who gave piano recitals in factories during the Blitz, hit the right note with this charming miniature for four-part choir, written around 1946.’ (read more…) 17. ‘After a soft organ introduction and an opening line sung in unison, the choral texture blossoms into four parts as the favourite Christmas carol’s narrator marvels at the miracle of Christmas.’ (read more…) 18. Six of the best 20th-century British choral works.‘Best known for his finely wrought keyboard works, early 17th-century Dutch composer Sweelinck also wrote some heavy-weight choral music, of which this joyful carol is one of his best examples’ (read more…) Hodie Christus Natus est by composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
A Mr WD Watson, so the story goes, heard it sung in St Day – Sen Day in Cornish – a village named after a Breton saint’ (read more…) 20. ‘This beautiful Cornish carol first came to light during the 19th century. ‘Ebeneezer Scrooge took exception to this traditional English carol in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, reacting so furiously to it that the carol singer on the other side of the door ran away ‘in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost’’ ( read more…) 21.
‘Few composers writing in recent years have had as big an impact on the British choral scene as Sir John Tavener (1944-2013)’ ( read more…) 23. ‘On Christmas Eve 1818 priest Joseph Mohr turned up on the doorstep of his friend Franz Xaver Gruber and asked him to write a Christmas carol’ ( read more about how the carol Silent Night was composed here…) 24.
0 kommentar(er)
