I'm going to post a #Carol a day for (what remains of) #Advent. It only seems appropriate this year to start with something from #Ukraine. This is a song we all know, but usually via the version that was adapted into English 101 years ago. Originally, it's a #Ukranian New Year's carol - 'Schedryk'. And here it is, as accompanied by bandur, the Ukrainian stringed instrument. Happy Advent and Slava Ukraini! 🎄 🇺🇦
(NB. This is a 🧵 but I'll leave the other posts unlisted.)
2. I'm OBSESSED by PhilipStopford's setting of 'Lully, Lulla, Lullay'.
This recording by Voces8 is insanely beautiful. Warning: it's sort of mesmeric, then as the soprano takes off in the final verse you become dead of joy. Mind how you go.
3. (I am SO behind. Sorry. l'll catch up and least post a carol for each day, even if it isn't on the day...)
So...
Here's a lovely slug of Austrian schmalz, as sung here by the Cologne Cathedral Girls' Choir in a really rather gorgeous arrangement. Death is still mentioned but on the whole it's less murdery than the previous entry.
4. Oooh, I LOVE this one. Cecilia MacDowell's spikily catch setting of 'Now May We Singen'. I love how the voices not singing the verse make a sort of mediaeval pipe-like drone underneath, while everything bounces and pops above them. Must be huge fun to sing.
5. Rutter! You can't have Christmas without Rutter. That's in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This is *sort of* Rutter, in that it's his arrangement, not his tune. The tune is the classic French carol 'Il Est Né, Le Divin Enfant'. The arrangement is lush like brandy butter.
6. Well now, if you ask me - and even if you didn't - Christmas isn't Christmas without Sasha Johnson Manning's sweetly elegant settings of the words of Carol Ann Duffy, which together make The Manchester Carols. This one is called 'New Boy Born'.
7. An Irish carol, this. It's a lullabye in which Mary, like all new mothers, wangs on about how lovely her baby is. Standard. It's arranged here by Fionntán Ó Cearbhaill with a slowly pulsing, waves-on-the-shore kind of a vibe. Gorgeous.
8. Here's a new one - only a year old, in fact. Short and very sweet. It's by young, British composer Yshani Perinpanayagam: 'In Bethlehem Above'.
9. You know how 'The First Nowell' is grindingly dull? Gordon Thornett is with you, so he did this to it. The very definition of catchy.
10. A full on classic. Vaughan Williams, who knew a thing or two about tunes, arranged the English folk carol 'The Truth Sent From Above' into this woozily beautiful absolute banger. I do love a carol that sounds ancient.
11. 'Maria Durch Ein Dornwald Ging' - which roughly means: Mary walked through a forest of thorns. A German carol for Advent. The combination of tune, arrangement and voices (the peerless VOCES8) is about as perfect as you could ask for.
12. Lowell Mason, who composed 'Joy To The World' claimed it was by Handel. It wasn't, but he did nick some stuff from 'Messiah' for it (cf. verse lines 1 & 3). John Rutter cleverly arranged it as though Handel had written it himself. It's great fun.
13. The most exciting choral stuff at the moment is coming from @AnnaLapwood, who makes the most interesting choices for her choirs. Here's one of them singing 'Venite, Gaudete' by Adrian Peacock - an almost desperate invitation to come and celebrate.
@mrchrisaddison
14. To Switzerland! Where Catholic priest Joseph Bovet arranged the shepherds' song 'Ô Nuit Brilliante' for tenors and basses. It tells of the light of the angels turning night to day. Something that these days you'd be able to refer to the Council.
15. A full-on classic. Hector Berlioz's 'The Shepherds' Farewell', which has snuck out the back of the oratorio it's actually part of and become a favourite carol of choirs the world over. Lush af.
16. A 15th Century poem with a 21st Century setting by the Canadian composer Sarah Quartel - 'This Endris Night'. Another lullabye carol though, unusually, without a murdery bit in the middle. I'm not sure the bells would help any baby to sleep, mind.
17. The late, great David Willcocks was a decorated war hero as well as a composer and the man behind a ton of the most familiar arrangements of carols we know and love. One of my favourites of his own compositions is 'Birthday Carol'. I love its bouncy, rat-a-tat rhythms. Also, xylophones AND trumpets? Sign me up!
18. Big Bobby C - Bob Chilcott - the Crown Prince of Christmas Carols has written some absolute bangers. ‘Cradle Carol’ is pure gorgeousness & at the end it manages the near impossible task of making the appalling, sickly sweet ‘Away In A Manger’ - a crime of a carol - sound rather lovely.
19. Time to go mediaeval on your ass. Probably. 'Remember, O Thou Man' turned up in a collection of carols and folk songs compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1611. I love an ancient-sounding carol. None more ancient-sounding than this.
20. Everyone knows this one. I love it because it reminds me of my Dad, who is given to singing the opening refrain at random moments throughout Christmas. 'Up! Good Christen Folk and Listen'. It's another carol that's had an odd life. It started out as a mediaeval song about peace and harmony and got used by George Ratcliffe Woodward, serial carol-botherer, as a Christmas carol in the 19th Century. He added the faux-olde, macaronic lyrics.
21. The 'Great O' Antiphons were sung for the 7 days up to Christmas. They are ooooold. Dating back to the 6th Century at least.
This is James MacMillan's gorgeous take on 'O Oriens', the one for 21st December, 'O Radiant Dawn'. Perfect for the Solstice, when the light begins to win again.
22. The eerily joyous 'This Little Babe' from Britten's 'A Ceremony of Carols'. Sparkly and frosty cold, it is. When the voices split into the canon section it is *tough* to sing, but this French choir absolutely smack it out of the park.
23. Our UK carol tradition is *way* older than the Victorian one we know today. For a long time, the only place you could hear carols (that weren't While Shepherds Watched) was outside of the church. The old, non-church ways still thrive in the pubs of South Yorkshire. Here are the folk of The Royal Hotel, Dungworth belting out 'Awake! Arise, Good Christians' last week.
24. To finish, here's as contemporary a carol as you could ask for. Ben Ponniah's exquisite 'Seeing The Star', as performed by @annalapwood's choir. Uplifting, hopeful, simple, beautiful. The absolute business.
Happy Christmas! See you next year. xx
Supplementary:
You can find an ongoing master list of all the carols I've posted over the last three years here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5sDnF9MQfhWsC1eRiQO9LS?si=b379d2aae860483e
This year's offerings are collected in this YouTube playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJ7C147l-vtCprjQ6HDL96Nx98jWSoA8
Last year's are here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJ7C147l-vt9ncFiztiGzS0Z_XyHACMF
And 2020's:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJ7C147l-vtvpSFSNvUXkYcOsF12MI_s
Disclaimer: Both sets of playlists are subject to individual tracks falling off their respective sites, so there probably won't be exactly 72 there.
But I hope you enjoy them.
@xanna Thanks! I'm delighted you've enjoyed them. You can find the playlist of all the ones I've posted over the last three years here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5sDnF9MQfhWsC1eRiQO9LS?si=007ab075b8054939
Merry Christmas!
@philipsheppard Of course! You have to sing the descants.
If you go to my profile page, you can find the earlier posts with YouTube links to the last three years' playlists of carols.
They're also here at this ongoing Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5sDnF9MQfhWsC1eRiQO9LS?si=c9c073b9a2cc404a
@mrchrisaddison Thank you - it's lovely. Talking about Medieval carols, I think you might like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7QlxvTIU6Q. It's worth looking at it on bigger-than-phone screen to get the lyrics, or see them on https://lyricstranslate.com/en/als-i-lay-yoolis-night-i-lay-yule-night.html.
Shameless plug (bit of a rag-bag of carols and non-carols - should be something for everyone to dislike): https://baccatabob.github.io/advent/bob.htm
Chris Addison
xanna
Richard
annabdent
heleninsomerset
Philip Sheppard
Clare Griffiths
Liz Hogbin
Bob Salmon