I got through quite a lot of carols and Christmas hymns this year. We had the usual Advent and Christmas carols services at church, and the Christmas one brought some new pieces: Philip Stopford’s setting of the Coventry Carol and somehow I’d managed to miss singing The little road to Bethlehem. The arrangement of the latter for unaccompanied choir still betrays its origins as a solo song.
I went to the school carol service in Bath Abbey. I always approach this occasion with wariness, as I’m now very bad at being in congregations and often I’m surrounded by people who chat throughout, not even listening to their own children performing for them. This year was a bit different; I had a neighbour who was clearly familiar with all the hymns (not all of them very well known), but who unfortunately had a rollercoaster-like portamento, both up and down. He covered his ear so he couldn’t hear anyone singing any differently from him. I wonder if he plagues a church congregation somewhere?
At another short carol service the hymns received a gloopy accompaniment with added ‘strings’, like a rather less tasteful version of the scoring of Jesus’ words in the St Matthew Passion. (The accompanist was clearly an enthusiast for ‘worship songs’ and performed for us one she’d written herself.) By the third carol, O come all ye Faithful, some of us decided to subvert this and we startled her by launching into the descant. This seems to be quite generally known (if mis-remembered in one or two places) as you quite often hear it sung informally, for example at the ‘Carols in the Circus’ which I went to the first half-hour of.
I revived local carol singing and recruited a few others via church and the Streetlife website, to go round Sion Hill. This was generally well received, although there is only a short window of time where you catch everyone; too early, and people have not returned from work, too late and some will refuse to answer the door.