Bach to Christmas

Choir & audience Once in royal Davids city Henry Gauntlett hrmnsd. Mann Choir A child is born in Bethlehem Samuel Scheidt edit. Willcocks Still, still, still Austrian carol arr. Ledger A babe is born William Mathias Choir & audience In the bleak mid-winter Gustav Holst Choir Carol of the Bells Ukrainian carol arr. Leontovych Jesus Christ the apple tree Elizabeth Poston The three kings Peter Cornelius arr. Atkins Choir & audience Unto us is born a Son Piae Cantiones arr. Willcocks

INTERVAL Please join us for seasonal refreshments

Choir Choral excerpts from Johann Sebastian Bach Part I of Mass in B minor Choir & audience Silent night Franz Gruber arr. Cullen Choir Deck the hall Welsh traditional carol arr. Willcocks There is a flower John Rutter Ding dong! merrily on high 16th century French melody hrmnsd. Wood Choir & audience O come, all ye faithful John Wade arr. Willcocks

Nico de Villiers piano and organ Conductor: Dan Ludford-Thomas

Once in royal Davids city Henry Gauntlett (1805-76) harmonised Arthur Mann (1850-1929) This carol has been a favourite around the world since the annual BBC UK & overseas broadcasts of the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from Kings College Chapel, Cambridge after World War II. But it was in fact in 1919 that it first took pride of place as the processional hymn in the Festival, in this arrangement by the

Chapels organist, Dr Arthur Mann. The tune was by another organist, Henry Gauntlett, who in 1849 had discovered the words in a poem by the Irish hymn writer and poet, Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-95). She had published these lines in her book Hymns for Little Children, which also included her hymns All things bright and beautiful and There is a green hill far away. As for Gauntlett, he held the post of organist at several London churches, including St Olaves near London Bridge and the Union Chapel, Islington. He was organist at the first performance of Mendelssohns great oratorio Elijah and was the first musician for more than 200 years to be awarded a Lambeth Doctorate by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Once in royal Davids city stood a lowly cattle shed, Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed: Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child. PLEASE NOW STAND AND JOIN US IN SINGING: He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all, And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall; With the poor, and mean, and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour holy. And through all his wondrous childhood he would honour and obey, Love, and watch the lowly maiden, in whose gentle arms he lay; Christian children all must be mild, obedient, good as he. For he is our childhoods pattern, day by day like us he grew, He was little, weak and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew; And he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness. And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love, For that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above; And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.

A child is born in Bethlehem Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) edited by Sir David Willcocks (1919-2015) Now considered as one of the most important composers of the 17th century, Samuel Scheidt studied with Sweelinck in Amsterdam and then became organist and Kapellmeister to the Margrave of Brandenburg. His vocal music came to epitomise the new north German Protestant style. In 1620 he produced his Cantiones sacrae or Sacred songs, including his Puer natus in Bethlehem, the first two verses of which David Willcocks translated for this carol. For the third and fourth verses, Willcocks drew from the Cowley Carol Book, a collection compiled in the early 1900s by George Ratcliffe Woodward, the cleric who also wrote the lyrics to Ding dong! merrily on high. Still, still, still Austrian carol arranged by Sir Philip Ledger (1937-2012)

In 1962, when appointed to Chelmsford, Philip Ledger became the youngest cathedral organist in the country. He then worked closely with Benjamin Britten as an Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival and later played the organ at Brittens funeral. In 1974 he succeeded David Willcocks as Director of Music at Kings College, Cambridge, a post he held for 8 years before moving to Glasgow as Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. The music for this carol, later arranged by Ledger, was originally a folk tune from the Austrian state of Salzburg, which appeared for the first time in 1865 as part of a collection of folksongs

assembled by the founder of the Salzburg Museum. A babe is born William Mathias (1934-92) The words of this carol date from the early 15th century, with the Latin refrains being drawn from the Gregorian chants used in the various Offices of the Hours (Lauds, Vespers etc). By giving the instruction Giocoso, alla danza (Joyous, in the style of a dance), Mathias echoes the bold rhythms and colourful textures of his piece. William Mathias was born in south west Wales and studied at Aberystwyth University and the Royal Academy of Music. A babe was born was his Opus 55, written in 1971 to fulfil a commission from the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and the Welsh Arts Council, when the composer was a professor and head of the music department at the University of Wales in Bangor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ratcliffe_Woodward

In the bleak midwinter Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

This carol has gone through a slow gestation period before becoming one of the most popular in the repertory. Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), the English poet and sister of the pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote the words around 1872, in response to a magazines request for a Christmas poem. But they were not published amongst her works until ten years after her death. Only two years later however Gustav Holst set the words to music and this setting and a later one by Harold Darke have vied for top popularity ever since. Holsts setting is a hymn which he named Cranham, after a village in his native Gloucestershire where his mother had been brought up. The hymn was

written for publication in the 1906 English Hymnal, of which friend and fellow composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was co-editor. PLEASE STAND AND JOIN US IN SINGING: In the bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter long ago. Our God, Heavn cannot hold him nor earth sustain; Heavn and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign: In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed The Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ. Enough for him, whom cherubim worship night and day, A breastful of milk and a mangerful of hay; Enough for him, whom angels fall down before, The ox and ass and camel which adore. What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb, If I were a Wise Man I would do my part, Yet what I can I give him, give my heart.

Carol of the bells Ukrainian carol arranged by Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921) This carol was originally written for performance on New Years Eve and known as bountiful evening in Ukraine. It recounted the folktale of a swallow flying into a house to sing of the wealth which would come to the households family the following spring. The composer and music teacher Mykola Leontovych wrote his arrangement in 1916 after receiving a commission from the director of the Ukrainian National Chorus. In January 1921 Leontovych, a supporter of Ukrainian independence, was assassinated by a Soviet agent, so sadly did not live to hear of his arrangements success when it was sung by the same Chorus in October that year to a sold-out Carnegie Hall in New York. The Ukrainian-American choral director and music teacher Peter Wilhousky (1902-78) did hear it however and 15 years later wrote the English lyrics we shall sing tonight. Wilhousky based these not on the original Ukrainian story but rather on the association he made of between the tune and the sound of hand bells. Jesus Christ the apple tree Elizabeth Poston (1905-87)

Elizabeth Poston was born and brought up in Hertfordshire. The writer E.M. Forster became a friend after Elizabeth and her mother moved into what had been Forsters childhood home, Rooks Nest House in Stevenage, which had been the inspiration for Forsters novel Howards End. Poston studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then studied architecture and collected folksongs abroad. She worked as Director of the BBCs European Service and was instrumental in creating what was to become BBC Radio 3. She was a friend of fellow composers Warlock and Vaughan Williams and collaborated in her musical settings with C.S. Lewis and Dylan Thomas. For this carol, which has surely become her

most popular work, Poston took the words from Baptist minister Joshua Smiths compilation Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs, published in New Hampshire in 1784. The words were however not of American but of English origin, as they first appeared in print in London in 1761. The link between Christ and an apple tree has been variously ascribed to several different Biblical allusions and also to the old tradition of wassailing by wishing health to apple trees on Christmas Eve.

Three kings Peter Cornelius (1824-74) arranged by Sir Ivor Atkins (1869-1953) Bass soloist: Joshua Ransome-Kuti Despite some having some very famous acquaintances and friends, including the Brothers Grimm, Mendelssohn, Wagner and Liszt, composer Peter Cornelius