Andrew S - Christmas Carols from Tewkesbury (Tewkesbury Abbey Choir) (Naxos: 8.553077) [CD]

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Carols from Tewkesbury Abbey Traditionally carols were not necessarily confined to the Christmas season, but were dance-songs. The dancers of Kölbigk, indeed, found themselves in difficulties with the Church, condemned by an angry priest to dance for a whole year, as a punishment for their neglect of religious duties, carolling at an inappropriate time in the churchyard. Nevertheless, even in the Middle Ages, there were carols specifically for Christmas, the season with which nowadays these songs are most closely associated. It has become the fashion to use very considerable technical and musical skill in the arrangement of essentially simple and popular music for the kind of sophisticated performance to be found in the major English choral foundations, and on these arrangements composers annually use much ingenuity and artifice. The Tewkesbury Abbey carols open with The first Nowell, in an arrangement by Sir David Willcocks, a musician well known for his long association with King's College, Cambridge, and its choir, and with the London Bach Choir. The series continues with another David Willcocks arrangement, this time of an old Basque carol, with well known words by S. Baring-Gould, Gabriel's Message. Other fine arrangements by David Willcocks include a version of the popular While shepherds watched their flocks, from Thomas East's 1592 publication, The Whole Booke of Psalmes with their Wonted Tunes, as they are sung in Churches. The Polish carol Infant holy, infant lowly is included, with the fifteenth century French Franciscan processional Come, o come Emmanuel. Two other French carols arranged by David Willcocks are Angels from the realms of glory and Quelle est cette odeur agréable? (Whence is that goodly fragrance flowings?), the latter sung here in French. A final arrangement by David Willcocks in the present collection is of the traditional English watchman's song God rest ye merry, gentlemen. A maiden most gentle appears in an arrangement by Andrew Carter and the traditional Cornish Sans Day Carol in a version by John Rutter. There is an arrangement of Karl Leuner's Shepherds' Cradle-Song by Charles Macpherson and of the traditional English The Holly and the Ivy by Sir Walford Davies, Master of the King's Musicke from 1934 in succession to Sir Edward Elgar. The oratorio by Hector Berlioz, L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ) brings The Shepherds' Farewell (Thou must leave thy lowly dwelling). The Stockport composer John Wainwright, organist and singer at Manchester Collegiate Church, later Manchester Cathedral, in the year before his death, 1767, is best remembered for his Christmas hymn Christians awake, salute the happy mom, written about 1750. Less familiar is the traditional English melody set to The Truth from Above by Ralph Vaughan Williams, co-editor of the important 1928 Oxford Book of Carols, a reaction, like The English Hymnal, to the excesses of nineteenth century sentimental hymnody. The anonymous fifte

The First Nowell

Gabriel's Message

A Maiden Most Gentle

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

Sans Day Carol

The Shepherds' Cradle-Song

Karl Leuner: Come, O Come Emmanuel

The Holly And The Ivy

The Shepherds' Farewell

Christains Awake

The Truth From Above

Angels From The Realms Of Glory

Quelle Est Cette Odeur Agreable

Adam Lay Y-Bounden

As With Gladness Men Of Old

I Saw A Maiden

Good King Wenceslas

The Little Road To Bethlehem

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen