Hitting A New Lo!

It is that time of the year again. Christmastide is upon us, as is the season of carol concerts. I went to one last week in the City, and on Saturday attended a second carol service in Coventry Cathedral. As you might imagine I really enjoy choral singing, both as a member of a choir, and as one of those annoying people in the congregation who sings just a little bit too loudly in your ear in church. I also love all the old English that gets trotted out at this time - when else can you use the word "lo!" in general conversation for instance? Handy little word though...

Carol services by and large tend to follow the pattern of opening with O Come All Ye Faithful and ending with Hark The Herald Angels Sing. I love both songs, especially the wonderful crescendo and descants of the last verse of Herald Angels, but what interests me more is the choice of songs in between.

The Conventry boys choristers, for instance, performed This Little Babe which the Pink Singers performed last winter, a particularly difficult piece from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Of course they performed the SSA version, while ours was an SATB arrangement, and they also performed it at about half the speed we did. It was pleasant but not hugely impressive. This is one song I think we did better.

Coventry cathedral is a bit unusual in also having girl choristers, and they performed two of John Rutter's Christmas Carols. Both are beautiful and amongst my favourites: Angels' Carol and Star Carol. Seeing as how we may be performing a Christmas themed concert next year, I hope both these carols will be in our repertoire. The other song which I really love is What Sweeter Music and hope that that too will be included in Winter 2008.