Our NCS ‘choiradmin’ asked members to name their favourite congregational / audience Christmas carol. A lively discussion ensued. Two postcards were planned from the contributions but as there won’t be an #MfEMondays on 22 December we’ve gone for something resembling a concertina of postcards.
Saturday 20 December, 1.30pm
THE MUSIC
Demi: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (minor key carols are the best) and In Dulci Jubilo, one of the first things I sang in a chamber choir back in school.
Robert likes pretty much every carol but agrees with Demi about the use of minor keys.
[Editor’s note: Other minor key carols include Carol of the Bells, Coventry Carol and the verses of We Three Kings.]
Stephanie: O come, all ye faithful for me every time. Shivers down my spine on the chord used for “Word”, and the fabulous descant!
Rachel P: The ‘word of the father’ chord in O come all ye faithful – but as a purist I insist it cannot be sung before Midnight Mass and must be past actual midnight…. 🤣🤣🤣
[Well, quite! “Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born THIS happy morning!”]
Angela S: Very fond of Of the Father’s heart begotten – beautifully lilting tune and uplifting thoughts.
Christine (who sings soprano): Silent Night because I like the alto part! Of the Father’s love begotten for the splendid organ accompaniment of the last verse and the words, “We were made out of love and for love”.
Rebecca: I love how the alto line in It came upon the midnight clear starts off very “one-note alto” and then goes WILD by the end of the verse.
A PUZZLE
Andy C, who used to sail a lot, picked I saw three ships but he’s always been puzzled by it given Bethlehem is landlocked! He also pictured Mary and Joseph in the first ship but wondered who was in the other two!
[Answers on a postcard to ncs@music-for-everyone.org]
MEMORIES
Ian: My daughter was born late on Christmas Eve in the City Hospital. At 8am on Christmas Day, I had her in my arms as the Salvation Army began playing Silent Night. Then I had to head home and ate beans on toast for Christmas Dinner!
Jules: O come all ye faithful for memories of the cheeky nudge with my mum at midnight mass to see if we were going to risk the descant.
[Jules typed that in the choir WhatsApp group while on hold to HMRC. Hope she was singing it when they answered!]
Rosalind: For memories as a 9-year-old singing the solo verse 1 of Once in royal David’s city in the carol service and hoping I wouldn’t go flat on “Jesus Christ her little child”.
Richard: Torches – I’ve always loved it, fond memories of singing it as a choirboy aged 8.
THE MESSAGE
Andy F: In the bleak midwinter, the words of the last verse ‘What can I give him… What I can I give him, Give my heart.’ bring us to the very meaning of Christmas and my faith. Ange F and Ruth agreed.
Denise: I’m with Andy – have always loved In the bleak because of the last verse!
Robert: Likewise, and the last verse of O little town of Bethlehem – “Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.”
Janice: In the bleak midwinter and the Sussex Carol for its sheer joyousness on the birth of Christ.
John: O come, O come Emmanuel. That longing we have for rescue, relief, deliverance or liberation when things are tough for us or those we love, and for those we don’t even know.
Rachel P: It came upon a midnight clear especially the words in the second verse ‘still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled, and still their heavenly music floats o’er all the weary world’. The descant is special too.
ENTERTAINING
[There’s always one, or maybe two, or…]
Jezz: It has to be The Cowboy Carol, followed by L.D.
“L.D?” asked choiradmin.
“Little Donkey,” came the reply!
[For those of you who’ve dreamt of singing the words ‘pink-a ping pang pong’ in a carol, here you go! https://youtu.be/poyCayCiyD4?si=K9x7HP1-b7OGkeqd ]
Iain: Gabriel’s Message – when “most highly favoured lady” is ‘accidentally’ sung as “most highly flavoured gravy”!
Robert: Quelle est cette odeur agréable – aka The whiffy carol.
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
Mags: I love the beautiful carols that are singable in German as well as English so I can share them in harmony with my German family, my favourite being Stille Nacht, though O Tannenbaum is fun!
Val: I’d go with Stille Nacht, too. So soothing at this time of year.
OTHER FAVOURITES
Rachel B: The Coventry Carol and Jesus Christ the apple tree.
Sue: See amid the winter’s snow.
David S: For me, O Holy Night beats everything.
The opening movement of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio was suggested several times!
[We excel at deviation! While I’m here, Hely Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony takes me back to bread skewered on a toasting fork browning before the log fire in my aunt’s sitting room. Germina would like to add how Fantasia on Christmas Carols truly begins her Christmas.]
And the most popular audience / congregational Christmas carol in NCS is…
It looks like O come all ye faithful takes third place, with Silent Night a close second. By a whisker – and where’s the little drummer boy when you need him – the top spot goes to In the bleak midwinter.
We sang this choir favourite during MfE’s Christmas is Coming concert in an arrangement by Gjeilo of Holst’s beautiful tune:
Nottingham Chamber Singers wish you
a Merry and Carol-filled Christmas!
Here are two lovely carols for you that we recorded in recent years, both in arrangements by that carol composer extraordinaire, John Rutter:
Sans Day Carol, arr. Rutter
Here we come a-wassailing, arr. Rutter
Notes:
A group of us will be singing carols in QMC main entrance 10.30am Monday 15 December, and another group at Wollaton Hall, Saturday 20 December between 1.30 and 3.00pm. Free entry. Scroll down the linked page for information: https://wollatonhall.org.uk/christmas/
You might like to read bass John’s blog post about Seven Favourite Christmas Moments for Organists.
Interested in joining the choir? Click here
Become a Friend of NCS Click here