Archive for December, 2010
String Quartet Christmas Concert in Haddenham Church
On Friday the 17th December, we performed a second string quartet concert in St. Mary’s church, Haddenham (just outside Aylesbury on the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border). It was a chilly evening which made travelling difficult as the roads were icy and several inches of snow lay on the ground – this is just one of the problems [...]
Music for a Winter’s Night – Concert in Hornchurch
On Tuesday the 14th of December our string quartet was invited to give a concert as part of Havering Council’s ‘Music for a Winter’s Night’ series at Langton’s Hall in Hornchurch, Essex. We were booked by a terrific gentleman by the name of Mark Etherington who saw the potential of the hall (as well as [...]
Christmas Concert for a Corporate Evening
About a week ago, our string quartet was booked to be part of an unusual alternative to the traditional office Christmas Party. The company had organised an evening for their staff in which a concert of Christmas music and carols was given at a venue in Soho, after which the group were going off to [...]
Wexford Carol / Irish Carol Medley for String Quartet
The very last track on our ‘I Saw Three Ships and Other Carols’ CD is a Medley comprising the ‘Wexford Carol’ and the ‘Irish Carol’. The former is one of the oldest carols in existence, dating back to the 12th century and concerns the nativity of Christ. The ‘Irish Carol’ (by a happy coincidence) also [...]
O Come, All Ye Faithful for String Quartet
Also known as ‘Adeste Fidelis’ this is one of the most recognisable carols of them all and dates back to the 18th century. The music was thought to be written by John Reading in the early 1700s with the words written by John Francis Wade in 1751 (published in a collection called ‘Cantus Diversi’). As [...]
O Come, O Come Emmanuel for String Quartet
This haunting melody is thought to have originated in France in the 13th century and added to a latin text which dates from a century earlier. The text is based on the biblical prophecy that states that God will give Israel a sign that will be called Immanuel (which literally means ‘ God with us’). [...]
Gabriel’s Message for String Quartet (A Basque Carol)
This traditional Basque carol has several different titles (including ‘The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Sent’) and has an interesting history. It was included in the French musiclogist Charles Borde’s collection of Basque folk tunes of 1895 and given words by the famous writer of hymns and carols Sabine Baring-Gould (who also wrote ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’). [...]
Once in Royal David’s City for String Quartet
Traditionally, this carol is the first one performed at the famous ‘Nine Lessons and Carols’ service held at Kings College Chapel, Cambridge. As such, a chorister usually sings the first verse as a solo and we wanted to keep this alive for the string quartet as it is an effective way of experiencing this well [...]
In The Bleak Midwinter for String Quartet
There are two well known melodies associated with the Christmas Carol ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ – one is by Harold Darke and the other is by Gustav Holst. On our carol disc, I opted to arrange based on the Holst melody but would certainly like to write a string quartet arrangement on the Harold Darke [...]
Christmas Concert – I Saw Three Ships, St Giles, Cheddington
Last night (Friday the 10th December) we gave our first Christmas concert of 2010 in our village church, St Giles – Cheddington. As ever, there was a good audience of around 80 people, many of whom had seen us perform before and the atmosphere was very festive with plenty of mulled wine, mince pies, candles [...]
