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Program Notes
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A Boy Was Born
For centuries composers have written songs, cantatas, oratorios -- both long and short, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Tonight we begin and end the first part of our concert with Hodie Christus Natus Est, first by Hans Leo Hassler and last by Giovanni Gabrieli. Both of these composers lived during the latter part of the 16th century and these short pieces could have been written at about the same time. Hassler and Gabrieli both died in 1612. Between these bookends you will hear William Byrd's solemn and lovely O Magnum Mysterium, composed between the 16th and 17th centuries, Gustav Holst's quiet lullaby, Lullay My Liking, Benjamin Britten's A Boy Was Born, and Francis Poulenc's Four Christmas Motets, all written in the 20th century. Whether hundreds of years ago or only yesterday, composers have always been drawn to the drama of the Nativity.
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From Far and Wide
Just as composers have written of the Nativity, folk songs have been created through the years, and passed from generation to generation, at first by oral tradition and then adapted or arranged by various composers. So it is with the Zither Carol, a Czech folk song that Malcolm Sargent arranged for chorus, or Mari Lywd, a haunting, Welsh carol arranged by Grace Williams. From Nigeria we have Betelehemu, from Spain, El Noi de la Mare, a Catalonian song adapted by Conrad Sousa from his Christmas Suite, Carols and Lullabies of the Southwest, Ariel Ramirez' El Naciamento from his longer work, Navidad Nuestra, a Hawaiian lullaby arranged by Malcolm Sargent and Robert De Cormier's arrangement of the African-American Christmas song, Children, Go Where I Send Thee.
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We Wish You a Merry Christmas
No Christmas concert would be complete without some of the familiar songs we learned when we were young. Songs we still sing during the holiday season, with our friends, our children and grandchildren While some of these carols may already be part of your holiday tradition, we hope that the less familiar ones will be equally appealing. In closing 'we wish you a merry Christmas' and a peaceful New Year.
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Page updated
October 29, 2003
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