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 [...]
The Sans Day Carol
This carol is another instance of a melody (which may have been in existence for many centuries) being collected and notated and thereafter becoming well known across the world. It owes it’s name to the Cornish village of St. Day (pronounced in Cornish as Sans Day) which itself was named after a Breton Saint. The [...]
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 [...]
Concert at Cheddington Church, 9th December
Last night we returned once more to play a concert in St Giles Church, Cheddington. Half the proceeds from the concert were to go towards the upkeep of the Church, with the remainder going towards the Church Bell Restoration Appeal. As always, the atmosphere in the church was magical with a smell of mulled wine [...]
Party at The Grand Union, Farringdon
On Wednesday evening, the quartet were engaged to perform for a corporate function held at the Grand Union Pub in Farringdon. The event was a masked ball to celebrate the anniversary of a well known public relations company and being December had a festive theme to it, with plenty of pieces from our Christmas repertoire [...]
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 [...]
Concert at Totternhoe Church, Bedfordshire
Last night was the first of our Winter concert series, this time in the lovely village Church of St Giles of Provence in Totternhoe. The Church Warden had booked us for this event after attending one of our concerts in Eaton Bray Church back in the autumn and we were delighted to be asked to perform [...]
