An Unsung Christmas

[Latvian]

One of the more enjoyable parts of my job as a church musician is putting on a small concert prior to our Christmas Eve service. Having access to a very capable group of student musicians (mostly strings, mostly college/conservatory music students), I have an opportunity to do some creative programming. So, I thought I would share this year's program of (mostly) unsung gems with you:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her, WoBWV (chorale prelude)
Niels Gade: selections from Børnenes Jul [A Children's Christmas], Op. 36 (1859)
Giuseppe Dinelli: Christmas Pastorale on "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" (pub. 1903)
Arnold Bax: A Christmas Carol (1909)
Bela Bartok: Romanian Christmas Carols, Sz. 57 (1915) -- First Set
Gustave Ferrari: Christmas Pastourelle on Two Provencal Christmas Carols (pub. 1920)
Andrejs Jansons: Ai, nama mamina (Latvian Christmas song) (c.1965)

All works except the Gade are my own arrangements for strings. The Bach, Dinelli, and Ferrari works are originally for organ. The Bax is originally for voice and piano, my arrangement substitutes flute for the vocal part. The Jansons is originally for mixed chorus. The Bartok is originally for piano -- remarkably, I couldn't find a standard arrangment for strings except a very unsatisfactory version that smooths out the trickier rhythms.

Many thanks to IMSLP and Sibley for many of the originals!

There will also be an arrangement of the Sussex Carol performed during the service, for mixed choir, cello, and glockenspiel.

If there is interest in hearing any of these arrangements I can upload MIDI realizations generated by my Sibelius software. Or, you're welcome to come to the concert!

[Greg K]

Or, you're welcome to come to the concert!

When and where?

[Latvian]

Saturday, December 24th, 2011, at 4:00 PM -- St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 161 Mansion Street, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA.

[semloh]

Saturday, December 24th, 2011, at 4:00 PM -- St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 161 Mansion Street, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA.

Where you'll probably have snow, and a real Christmas! 

Here we'll have 104F, 90% humidity and be refreshing ourselves in the pool - and Christmas dinner will be ice-cold beer and champagne, prawn salad, ice cream and fresh fruit! Nice, but for someone who grew up in England, it ain't Christmas!!

Lovely programme, Latvian.... I'm sure it will be very special. 

[Delicious Manager]

For many years I programmed for one of the London chamber orchestras which always had a series of Christmas concerts in central London. When I took over, I was determined to re-vamp the oft-repeated, tired repertoire from previous years and introduce some 'new blood'. Among those works I included over several years were:

Thomas Adès - The Fayrfax Carol
JS Bach - Cantata No 57 (Selig ist der Mann)
JS Bach - Cantata No 62 (Komm, der heiden Heiland)
JS Bach - Cantata No 191 (Gloria in excelsis Deo)
Frank Bridge - Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance)
Caldara - Christmas cantata: Amarilli vezzosa (first performance in modern times)
Caldara - Christmas cantata: Vaticine di pace
Caplet - Le miroir de Jésus
Charpentier - Messe de minuit pour Noël
Collan - Sylvian joulu laulu
Arnold Freed - 3 Christmas Carols
Howells - Tryste Noël
Locatelli - Concerto Grosso in F minor, Op 1 No 8 (Christmas Concerto)
Nielsen - Forunderligt at sige
Poulenc - Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
Alessandro Scarlatti - Cantata pastorale per la nascità di Nostro Signore
Saint-Saëns - Christmas Oratorio, Op 12
Sibelius - 5 Christmas Songs, Op 1
Tavener - God is With Us (Christmas Proclamation)
Torelli - Concerto a quattro in G minor in forma di pastorale, per il santo natale di Nostro Jesu, Op 8 No 6
Valentini - Sinfonia a tre, per il Santissimo Natale
Villa-Lobos - Praesepe
Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in E major per il Santissimo Natale, RV 270
Walton - What Cheer?
Warlock - Bethlehem Down
Warlock - The First Mercy
John Woolrich - Spring in Winter

Please feel free to pillage at will!

[Latvian]

Here we'll have 104F, 90% humidity and be refreshing ourselves in the pool - and Christmas dinner will be ice-cold beer and champagne, prawn salad, ice cream and fresh fruit!

Frankly, I'm not too fond of snowy winters any more, but 104 degrees seems a bit extreme as well. I wouldn't mind the beer and prawn salad, though! I assume you're in the tropics?

For many years I programmed for one of the London chamber orchestras which always had a series of Christmas concerts in central London. When I took over, I was determined to re-vamp the oft-repeated, tired repertoire from previous years and introduce some 'new blood'.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep them in mind when selecting next year's program.

[jerfilm]

I'm not fond of Minnesota winters either.  We stay for Christmas with our familys and then head to the Palm Springs area for 3 months.  Frankly I wish we were there already......I guess our Christmas music this season will be a performance of Messiah by the Mankato, MN Symphony Orchestra.   A pretty decent ensemble for a little city of 44000..... I ramble, sorry  But pursuant to another thread about audiences, concert music is not dead even in rural areas of the midwest...

Jerry

[Christopher]

You could add Lyapunov's "Svyatki" ('Fêtes de Noël') and Rebikov's "Yolka" ('Christmas Tree'), to name a couple of Unsungs mentioned elsewhere here....

I guess Corelli's Christmas Concerto would be to move into Sung territory!

[dafrieze]

In my years singing with Boston's Chorus pro Musica we sang a lot of music by little-known (at least at the time) composers, and a number of these works, which I have never sung or even heard again, were by unsung composers.  The American composer Lee Hoiby wrote a lovely cantata, A Hymn of the Nativity, which I remember at least partly because it concluded with a choral fugue on a theme that sounded remarkably like that of an old Alka-Seltzer television commercial ("Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, Oh, what a relief it is!").  And there was another cantata, Christmas Rhapsody, by a very unsung English composer and organist named Jasper Rooper.  This is almost 40 years ago now, but they're both relatively substantial works that would benefit from more frequent performances.

[JimL]

...Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, Oh, what a relief it is...

Not to be nit-picky, but it was "plop, plop".  You know, the sound of two Alka-Seltzer tablets dropping into the glass.

[dafrieze]

I sit corrected.

[eschiss1]

Looking at a list of works and names in a classical music article in one of the local papers here (Ithaca, NY) I'm interested to see Pietro Yon's name mentioned for one event...- well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, apparently a choral and organ (season-related, given the name of the article it appears in) program. (Ok, he's not that unsung, though I hadn't heard of him until somewhat recently.)  A work by Healey Willan is also in the program.

[Latvian]

Looking at a list of works and names in a classical music article in one of the local papers here (Ithaca, NY) I'm interested to see Pietro Yon's name mentioned for one event

Pavarotti used to sing Yon's Jesu, bambino quite often -- a lovely work, which I may arrange for my ensemble next year. Actually, the Dinelli work on this year's program is stylistically quite similar.

[Latvian]

I'm not fond of Minnesota winters either.

Jerfilm, I don't blame you. I've been to Minneapolis in the winter and it was not fun!