Release Date: 09 January 2004
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313258529
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: A Christmas Choral Spectacular
Description
A Christmas Choral Spectacular(arrangements by Peter Breiner)A staple of the Christian choral tradition, the carol is mostaccurately defined as a religious seasonal song, of joyfulcharacter, in the vernacular and sung by the commonpeople, and indeed the time-hallowed annual Christmasritual of carolling, always close to the hearts of ordinarypeople, is essentially of peasant rather than aristocraticorigin. Several of the most enduring carol-tunes date fromthe Middle Ages or even earlier, having first been eithersacred or secular, particularly pastoral melodies,frequently of French or German origin. The latter groupoften have lilting rhythms, betraying their former linkswith courtly dancing, not infrequently out of doors, andsome of these are as pagan in origin as our Christmas hollyor the candles on our cake. Others may relate morespecifically to, or have been at least in part inspired by thecrib that from the time of St Francis of Assisi in thethirteenth century has traditionally been installed inchurches at Christmastide.The medieval carol, which as often dealt with earthlytopics as with the Nativity, the Blessed Virgin or StNicolas, usually favoured a Latin or vernacular textarranged in simple, easily memorised stanzas withrepeatable refrains, or 'burdens'. While many ancientcarol-tunes are extant in manuscript, the earliest printedcarols, in the collection of Caxton's pupil Wynkyn deWorde, first appeared in England in 1521. After theReformation carols inclined in their message and mood ofChristmas toward a more modern idiom. In 1833 WilliamSandys' seminal Christmas Carols Ancient and Modernappeared and the Victorian era saw the publication ofother influential collections, including Bramley andStainer's Christmas Carols New and Old and by the latenineteenth-century revival movements, analogous to thoserelating to folk-song and dance, were active in preservingancient oral carol traditions from extinction. The trendcontinued into the twentieth century through variouschoral anthologies.Another, sadly now all but faded strand in the fabricof choral Christmas, is the nostalgic English custom ofopen-air carol-singing, performed by 'waits'. This, asPercy Scholes reminds us, 'had long become a matter ofdoor-to-door visitation, often of a very picturesque nature[which] tended to be degraded into a petty beggary: inevery district little children paraded from door-step todoor-step, from the end of November onwards, buildingup a Christmas fund by the extortion of what may veryfairly be called \hush money.'The distinctive lilt of Ding dong! Merrily on high,with its now familiar English text by G.R. Woodward(1848-1934), betrays its history, for it was originally not acarol at all but a courtly dance-rhythm. Attributed to thepseudonymous Thoinot Arbeau (1520-1595) it wasgleaned from the Orchesographie of 1589, a manual ofmusic and choreography by the French ecclesiastic JehanTabourot.The Coventry Carol, Lully, lulla, thow little tynechild, deals with the slau
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
