I’ve saved this carol for last because Christmas Day is all about the big descants (musically speaking, anyway – there is, I understand, also a theological meaning to the day…), and this is a descant I’ve wanted to sing for…
Tag: one-woman choir
Advent Calendar 24 – The Shepherds’ Farewell
This is an old favourite from my shopping centre carolling days back in the 1990s. We always referred to this piece as ‘carols on acid’, because of the trippy key changes, and perhaps also because Berlioz was a 19th century…
Advent Calendar 22 – Ding Dong Merrily on High
This is a carol that probably needs no introduction – except, perhaps, to note that it really ought not to be sung this fast, but there was a lot of hooning going on on the street outside, and the faster…
Advent Calendar Day 21 – In the Bleak Midwinter
I’ve always loved this carol, mostly for its gorgeous lyrics. I can never decide which tune I love more, but since I’m not a tenor, for one-woman choir purposes it has to be the Holst version. Today is the summer…
Advent Calendar 20 – Away in a Manger (Normandy tune)
I have loved this arrangement of Away in a Manger ever since I first saw it in the old green Oxford Carols Book. Later editions didn’t include it, I suspect because people sing Away in a Manger to please the…
Advent Calendar 18 – A Babe is Born in Bethlehem
This carol is entirely new to me, but it looked pretty, and I liked its early music harmonies and dancing rhythm. It’s a traditional German carol, which was harmonised in the early 17th century by Johann Hermann Schein, a composer…
Advent Calendar 16 – Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
This is a lovely German carol from the 17th century. I’ve mostly sung it in translation – and there are a lot of translation, my favourite of which contains the line ‘ye oceans clap your hands’. I love the very…
Advent Calendar 15 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Feeling a little bit frivolous today. The arrangement is mine. I should probably be ashamed to admit this, but I’m not, not even a little bit.
Advent Calendar 14 – Lute Book Lullaby
It’s only a short carol, I thought. I’ve sung it before!, I thought. How hard can it be? I thought. Yeah. I don’t think I have sung it before, actually, or at least, not in this arrangement, and as for…
Advent Calendar 13: I Saw a Maiden
I love this piece for its gorgeous alto line and for the lovely lyrics – mickle melody is such an awesome phrase. I taught it to my work choir years ago and after an initial round of complaining that it…