At 10am GMT on each day of Advent I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! You can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
Bernard de La Monnoye: Pat-a-pan, performed by the Dale Warland Singers
To end week three and really get us in the mood for Christmas, here’s a carol that isn’t performed often enough. This was originally a French carol, and it dates back to the early eighteenth century. Many, even most of the popular carols you will hear sung out of churches across the land over the next four days were composed in the nineteenth century. I would love to be around in a hundred years to see if our descendants will in turn have abandoned the Victorian carols we love, in favour of the Christmas music of the 20th century. Village Halls the length of the land belting out secular christmas number ones from the 90′s and 2000′s? Don’t rule it out.
I’ve copied the full English lyrics from the brief but informative Wikipedia entry on this carol, though this recording is a reduced version. If there were an online score I’d urge you to print it off and put it under the nose of your local choirmaster!
Willie, bring your little drum;
Robin, bring your flute and come;
And be merry while you play,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu,
Pat-a-pat-a-pan,
Come be merry while you play,
On this joyous Holiday!
When the men of olden days
To the King of Kings gave praise,
On the fife and drum did play,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu,
Pat-a-pat-a-pan,
On the fife and drum did play,
So their hearts were glad and gay!
God and man today become
More in tune than fife and drum,
So be merry while you play,
Tu-re-lu-re-lu,
Pat-a-pat-a-pan,
So be merry while you play,
Sing and dance this Christmas Day!
At 10am GMT on each day of Advent I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! You can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
John Taverner: Gloria, from the Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas (‘Glory be to the Trinity’ Mass)
Given his influence over the composers who were to follow him, it’s a crime that the name of John Taverner is not more widely known today. As Gimell Records point out:
Originally in a spirit of wanting to flatter Taverner by copying him, composers of every generation up to that of Purcell, and including Purcell himself, tested their contrapuntal techniques by basing music on the ‘In nomine’ section of the Benedictus of Taverner’s Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas.
If anything, Taverner’s Western Wind Mass is more well known than his Trinity Mass, but for me it is this work, and this Gloria, which cry out to listened to in rapt attention. I dream of being allowed to sit in front of a choir in, say, Durham Cathedral, just me, a choir, and this. I’d be jelly on the floor come the final, awesome, Amen.
At 10am GMT on each day of Advent I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! You can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
Thomas Tallis:Audivi vocem, from the Christmas Mass
This is the second, but not the final, appearance by my musical icon Thomas Tallis in this Choral Christmas series of blog posts. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you probably knew what is coming up on the 24th December, on day one.
As Peter Phillips of the Tallis Scholars, who we hear in today’s performance, says:
“Not long ago neither Tallis’s Missa Puer natus est nobis nor his antiphon Ave Dei patris filia could have been recorded: the manuscripts for some of the voice-parts were missing and were believed to be lost for ever. It is a privilege to put such significant works together on disc for the first time.”
This piece forms part of Tallis’s Christmas Mass, and for me is one of those works which neatly encapsulates the transition in choral music from plainchant and monody (one voice) to polyphony (many voices) which was raw and very modern in the days of Tallis’s compositional career.
At 10am GMT on each day of Advent I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! You can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
Silent Night, performed by The Seaton Singers
On a technical level, let’s be honest, this video is rubbish. The hiss, the audience noise, the picture quality…. But when I watched it I knew I had to include it for three reasons.
First, this is a Northumbrian choir performing in Northumberland, and that’s home, and Christmas is in some part about returning home or finding a sense of home. Secondly, I am hard of hearing and am constantly reminded that you can interpret music completely differently to most people when one of your key senses is impaired. It’s great to include a performance in this series which is signed for the deaf. Finally, it’s a reminder of the incredible ability of music to bring people together. Here is a community choir, performing in it’s local community, singing a German carol in English, and by signing the performance they are making the effort to include people who might otherwise have been excluded from the performance.
For good measure, here’s the Vienna Boy’s Choir performing Stile Nacht in a recording from 1967. Close your eyes and enjoy:
At 10am GMT on each day of Advent, I’ll be posting a YouTube video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice. You can access the full Choral Christmas here.
Bach: Gloria Patri
I was once asked by a budding playwright, arranging the first staging of a new production, what piece of music I would suggest be used to accompany a scene which depicted the opening of the gates of Heaven. After some deliberation I handed over a recording of this final movement of Bach’s Magnificat in D Major, particularly emphasising the passage which begins in this video at around 60 seconds. This piece resonates majesty and joy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, and ever shall be. World without end, Amen.
In this recording we see some period instruments – a couple of baroque flutes and some sackbuts, and an utter lunatic of a conductor – Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Enjoy.
