The Twelve Days of Christmas……
When I came to choose and arrange the carols for the second volume ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’, one of the first pieces I wrote down was ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ - a traditional and well loved melody that could be arranged in an inventive and entertaining way for strings, making use of various playing techniques for [...]
Concerts in Fakenham and Norwich
Just over a week ago, the quartet went on a mini ‘tour’ with four concerts in three days, including two on the same day in Norfolk (you can read about the other two in Cheddington and Cuddington in separate blogs). One (a matinee) was in Fakenham Methodist Church and the other was for the Norfolk and Norwich [...]
Noel Nouvelet
The final track on our album It Came Upon The Midnight Clear and other carols is the ancient French piece, ‘Noel Nouvelet’. Like many traditional melodies it has a complicated history that means there are a variety of sources, largely inconsistent. This in no way detracts from the majestic power of this melody which made it [...]
O Little Town of Bethlehem
No Christmas album would have been complete without including one of the most memorable English carols ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. The original melody is often known as ‘Forest Green’ as Ralph Vaughan Williams collected the tune ‘The Ploughboy’s Dream’ in 1903 from a Mr. Garman of Forest Green in Surrey. The words added to the melody were [...]
To Drive The Cold Winter Away…
This wonderfully evocative melody is also known as ‘In Praise of Christmas’ or ‘The Praise of Christmas’. A version of this song dating from the early 17th century has the interesting title of ’A Pleasant Country New Ditty: Merrily Shewing How to Drive the Cold Winter Away’. The song is also included in that classic collection of folk [...]
Carol of the Bells
This increasingly popular carol was written by a Ukranian composer called Mykola Leontovych in 1904 - like many carols, it has it’s origins in a traditional folk melody. The lyrics ‘Ring Christmas bells’ etc were added in 1947 and although Leontovych himself was shot dead in 1921, this piece has grown in worldwide popularity to [...]
I Saw Three Ships - Concert at Cuddington.
Last night we returned to play once again at St Nicholas Church in Cuddington - a village near the border between Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Having given a concert back in September in this Church, we were especially keen to return to such an enthusiastic, delightful audience. It was a beautiful, clear and frosty night with [...]
The Shepherds’ Farewell
The full title of Hector Berlioz’s ’The Shepherds’ Farewell’ is ‘L’Adieu des Bergers a la Sainte Famille’ (’The Shepherds Bid Farewell to the Holy Family’). It is from Part 2 of his oratorio ‘L’Enfance du Christ’ (’The Childhood of Christ’) which is a trilogy based on the holy family’s flight into Egypt.
From a musical performance point of view, [...]
Lute Book Lullaby - Sweet Was The Song the Virgin Sang
This beautiful melody is often entitled ‘Sweet Was the Song’ but is also known as the ‘Lute Book Lullaby’ as it originates from William Ballet’s collection of lute music which dates from 1600 and is now housed in the library at Trinity College in Dublin. It is an important collection that gives us an insight [...]
O Tannenbaum (O Fir Tree).
‘O Tannenbaum’ is a beautiful Christmas carol from Germany and although it is often translated as ‘O Christmas Tree’ a more accurate definition would be ‘O Fir Tree’. This evergreen tree has inspired many songs in Germany and it seems that this particular version was written in 1824 by Ernst Anschutz, an organist, composer and teacher [...]
