We held over our Advent carol service till the second Sunday of Advent, in order not to clash with similar services at Bath Abbey and elsewhere. There was a piece (and composer) new to me: Come, thou long-expected Jesus<\/i> by Daniel Gawthrop. I re-encountered A New Song<\/i> by James MacMillan and now know why the vocal parts change abruptly in style from simple to florid and back again; it is an adaptation of an earlier piece (Advent Antiphon<\/i>) for soloist and congregation. (This earlier piece is on the new Advent at Merton<\/i> CD).<\/p>\n
The previous evening some of us had been out singing carols at the Christmas market for an hour. We had something of a ‘graveyard slot’ – the last hour on Saturday before the market shut, when people are gradually drifting away. However we got some complimentary comments including someone who had thought we were a much larger group until he saw us!<\/p>\n
The following weekend I went to the Christmas concert given by local choir Canzona. The largest piece on the programme was Poulenc’s four Christmas motets; of these, Videntes Stellam<\/i> seems to get performed most, with O magnum mysterium<\/i> also getting quite a few outings. The programme also included some arrangements by people associated with the choir, and, as is almost mandatory in a Christmas concert, a couple of carols for the congregation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We held over our Advent carol service till the second Sunday of Advent, in order not to clash with similar services at Bath Abbey and elsewhere. There was a piece (and composer) new to me: Come, thou long-expected Jesus by … Continue reading