O Holy Night…..
The tenth track on the disc ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear and other carols’ is ‘O Holy Night’ (also known as ‘Cantique de Noel’). It is a carol written in 1847 by Adolphe Adam. Adam is now best known for his ballet ‘Giselle’ as well as being the teacher and mentor of Leo Delibes.
It is a [...]
Rocking Carol
The ‘Rocking Carol’ (often simply called ‘Rocking’) is a Czech Christmas carol that is also well loved here in Britain. It begins with the lines ‘Little Jesus, sweetly sleep, do not stir; We will lend a coat of fur, We will rock you, rock you, rock you. . .’ and this insistence adds to the [...]
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear…..
The fourth carol on the album ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear and other carols’ is the title track itself. The words of this carol were written in 1849 by the Unitarian minister Edmund Sears from Massachusetts and these words spawned two separate melodies. In the United States it is widely known set to a [...]
Ding Dong Merrily on High….
When English composer George Radcliffe Woodward wrote the words to a 16th century French secular dance, one of the most enduring and well loved Christmas carols was written - ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’ - a carol which reflected Woodward’s interest in the ancient English tradition of Church Bell Ringing.
This carol is the third on [...]
I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
The idea behind recording and releasing our new disc of Christmas carols for String Quartet first occurred to us last November as we were preparing music for a forthcoming Christmas concert at our local Church in Cheddington. What I didn’t want to do was to select well known carols and simply harmonise them as I [...]
Three Ships, Harvest Time and Droplets
With the first of our Christmas String Quartet Concerts fast approaching, we wanted to devote some of yesterdays rehearsal time to playing through the first of the completed Christmas carol arrangements which we’ll be performing. The first concert will be on the 11th of December in St Giles Church, Cheddington and the second will see us [...]
