A Wells Christmas 1

A Wells Christmas WELLS CATHEDRAL CHOIR MATTHEW OWENS RES10176 Traditional English Alfred Hollins (1865-1942) arr. Bob Chilcott (b. 1955) 11. Christmas Cradle Song [3:06] A Wells Christmas 1. Sussex Carol * [2:02] Bob Chilcott Traditional French 12. The Sparrow’s Carol * [2:31] arr. Andrew Carter (b. 1939) 2. A maiden most gentle [2:52] Thomas Hewitt Jones (b. 1984) 13. What child is this? [4:52] Wells Cathedral Choir Jefferson McConnaughey (b. 1952) 3. In the bleak midwinter * [4:19] John Rutter Jonathan Vaughn organ 14. Jesus Child [3:22] Matthew Owens conductor Traditional Czech arr. Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967) Traditional English 4. Zither Carol [2:37] arr. John Rutter 15. I saw three ships [2:15] Matthew Owens (b. 1971) 5. Lullay, my liking * [5:22] Traditional French arr. Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) Traditional Welsh 16. O leave your sheep [4:52] arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015) 6. Deck the hall [1:19] James Lord Pierpont (1822-93) arr. David Willcocks [2:10] John Rutter (b. 1945) 17. Jingle, bells 7. Donkey Carol [4:34] Traditional English Traditional English arr. Richard Elliot [2:06] arr. David Willcocks 18. I Saw Three Ships About Wells Cathedral Choir and Matthew Owens: 8. Tomorrow shall be my dancing day [2:04] Traditional English ‘The choir is, in a word, magnificent; Traditional English arr. Arthur Warrell (1883-1939) [1:34] singing with impressive self-assurance’ arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) 19. A Merry Christmas International Record Review 9. This is the truth sent from above [3:02] Hugh Martin (1914-2011) and Ralph Blane (1914-1995) Cornish Traditional arr. Peter Gritton (b. 1963) [3:31] ‘Glorious, life-affirming and distinctive choral arr. John Rutter 20. Have yourself a merry little Christmas music in superbly polished performances’ 10. Sans Day Carol [3:13] Gramophone Total playing time [61:54] * world premiere recording A Wells Christmas Vindication of Christmas in 1652, in which he singled out communities in the West of Traditional carol tunes have been arranged England for continuing to celebrate it. by composers for centuries, certainly from Cromwell became Lord Protector in 1653 and the time of Michael Praetorius in the early he maintained the ban on public celebrations 1600s. In Britain, carols took longer to of Christmas, underlining the point by become established, partly because the transacting government business on 25 seventeenth century was a difficult era for December. The feast was still celebrated in the celebration of Christmas. Carols had private, but it wasn’t until the Restoration often been sung by wassailers (street in 1660 that Christmas Day was re-established singers) or included in Christmas mystery in the calendar. plays, and Puritans in England tried to stamp out these tunes, especially given For at least another century, Christmas was their associations with drinking, with almost entirely a domestic festival, enjoyed secular origins, or – worst of all – with quietly at home for those fortunate enough the Roman Catholic church. It wasn’t just to have a holiday. Many were not, and carols, but the feast itself that was under working conditions during the early years threat of extinction. In 1644, Parliament of the Industrial Revolution led to the virtual decreed that since 25 December that extinction of the feast in many parts of the year was a fast day, it should kept as such, country. There were still outposts of the rather than for feasting, or ‘by giving liberty ‘traditional’ Christmas. In Jane Austen’s to carnal and sensual delights’. A month Persuasion (her last novel, published in later, Parliament attempted to abolish the 1817), Jane Austen described the celebrations public celebration of Christmas altogether: by the Musgroves at Uppercross Hall: its new Directory for the Public Worship of On one side was a table occupied by some God, a Puritan alternative to the established chattering girls, cutting up silk and gold Book of Common Prayer, made no reference paper; and on the other were tressels and to Christmas at all. Cancelling Christmas trays, bending under the weight of brawn aroused considerable public resentment, and cold pies, where riotous boys were and making the celebration of Christmas a holding high revel; the whole completed punishable offence in 1647 made matters by a roaring Christmas fire, which seemed om Lindsey even worse. Riots in London and Kent determined to he heard in spite of all the y: T followed, and John Taylor published his noise of the others. aph ogr Phot In 1819, Washington Irving, on a visit to important landmark in the revival of English the same time. In the later-nineteenth Service there. The Nine Lessons and Carols at England from the United States, was carols. Containing just twenty carols, this was century, churches around the country began King’s College, Cambridge, began on enchanted by the traditional Christmas followed in 1833 by a much more ambitious to sing carols at Evensong on Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, 1918, devised by Eric celebrations he experienced at Aston collection, William Sandys’s Christmas Carols and a more formal Service was started – Milner-White, Dean of King’s, and the Hall, providing a lightly fictionalized Ancient and Modern, containing eighty carols. appropriately enough – at the cathedral Director of Music, Arthur Henry Mann, who account in his The Keeping of Christmas The same author’s Christmas-tide: its History, in the Cornish city of Truro. On 20 December held the post at King’s from 1876 until his at Bracebridge Hall where he writes about Festivities and Carols, with their Music 1878, the Royal Cornish Gazette announced: death in 1929. Mann’s successor was Christmas as a long-established feast in appeared in 1852. Boris Ord and he, in turn, was followed the British countryside: The Choir of the Cathedral will sing a by David Willcocks. number of carols in the Cathedral on Sandys’s 1833 and 1852 collections are an Nothing in England exercises a more Christmas Eve, the service commencing at delightful spell over my imagination important printed source for some very 10 p.m. We understand that this is at the The Oxford Book of Carols, first published in than the lingerings of the holiday customs famous carols, including I saw three ships wish of many of the leading parishioners 1928, was edited by Percy Dearmer, Martin and rural games of former times. The and Tomorrow shall be my dancing day and others. A like service has been Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Their English […] throughout every class of complete with what are still their most instituted in other cathedral and large choice of carol tunes owes something to society, have always been fond of these familiar tunes. However, these carol towns, and has been much appreciated. the work of the English Folk Dance and festivals and holidays which agreeably collections were intended either for the It is the intention of the choir to no Song Society and Cecil Sharp – there are interrupt the stillness of country life […] interest of antiquarians or as songbooks for longer continue the custom of singing plenty of vigorous melodies well suited to Christmas is still a period of delightful the home. Collections such as Christmas carols at the residences of members of congregational singing, including the excitement in England. Carols New and Old (1867–78), edited by the congregation. Sussex Carol – but there are also more Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, recent carols by Holst, Warlock and Some of the music that might have The Bishop of Truro, appointed in 1877, and Carols for Use in Church during Vaughan Williams himself, as well as a accompanied this kind of traditional English was Edward White Benson (father of the Christmas and Epiphany (1875), edited by selection of traditional tunes from mainland Christmas was published in 1822 by the novelist E.F. Benson of Mapp and Lucia Richard Robert Chope and Herbert Stephen Europe. In the Preface, Percy Dearmer Cornishman, Davies Gilbert (1767–1839). fame, and of A.C. Benson, the poet of Land ells Irons (organist of Southwell Minster), with wrote that: A graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, of Hope and Glory and later Master of a preface by Sabine Baring-Gould, finally and the MP for Helston (1804–6) and Magdalene College and author). In 1880, Carols are songs with a religious impulse provided a repertoire of carols to be sung Bodmin (1806–32), he was a man of with the help of his Assistant Precentor, that are simple, hilarious, popular, and y: Rudi W in church. Stainer was organist at London’s startlingly wide interests in the arts and Rev. George Walpole (father of the novelist modern. They are generally spontaneous aph St Paul’s Cathedral from 1871 to 1888, and sciences. He encouraged the young Hugh Walpole), Benson instituted the first and direct in expression, and their simplicity ogr during these years he started to include of form causes them sometimes to ramble Humphry Davy and selected Brunel’s service of Nine Lessons with Carols: Festal Phot a carol sung by the choir every evening on like a ballad. Carol literature and music design for the Clifton suspension bridge. Service for Christmas Eve. Truro has during the Christmas season. are rich in true folk-poetry and remain His book Some Ancient Christmas Carols maintained the tradition ever since, and fresh and buoyant even when the subject with the tunes to which they were formerly when Benson became Archbishop of The history of the Carol Service began around is a grave one. But they vary a good deal: sung in the West of England was an Canterbury, he inaugurated a similar Carol some are narrative, some dramatic, some published in 1961 and was a tremendous including this distinctive arrangement of Master of the Choristers at Wells Cathedral, personal, a few are secular; and there are commercial success (to date, well over a A maiden most gentle.

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