Carols From Kings College Cambridge

Choir Of Kings' College Cambridge, Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Sir David Wilcocx

CD1

  1. Once in Royal David's City, carol
  2. Ding Dong! Merrily on High (French)
  3. O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste fideles)
  4. The Holly and the Ivy (English)
  5. Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (adapted by W. H. Cummings from Mendelssohn's Festgesang for the Gutenburg Festival)
  6. Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night)
  7. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (adapted from Handel)
  8. In the Bleak Midwinter
  9. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (English)
  10. The Lamb, for chorus
  11. Angels from the Realms of Glory
  12. Adam Lay Y-Bounden, carol
  13. The Three Kings (a.k.a. "We Three Kings")
  14. I Saw A Maiden (Basque)
  15. Quelle est cette odeur agréable? (Whence is that goodly fragrance?) (French)
  16. Quem pastores laudavere (Hohenfurth Manuscript, 1410)
  17. Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (English)
  18. A Maiden Most Gentle (French)
  19. A Spotless Rose, for chorus
  20. Sans Day Carol
  21. I Wonder As I Wander
  22. The Cherry Tree Carol
  23. I Sing of a Maiden for 2 voices & piano
  24. Gabriel's Message (Basque)
  25. Personent hodie (On this day Earth shall ring) (Piae Cantiones)

CD2

  1.  The First Nowell (English)
  2.  In dulci jubilo (Piæ Cantiones)
  3. O Little Town of Bethlehem
  4. I Saw Three Ships, carol
  5. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
  6. Away in a manger (Tune: Cradle Song) (New English Hymnal 22)
  7. Sussex Carol ("On Christmas Night")
  8. O come, o come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel), carol
  9. Myn Lyking
  10. Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (The Apple Tree Carol)
  11. All my heart this night rejoices, hymn
  12. Dormi Jesu (The Virgin's Cradle Hymn)
  13. Riu, riu, chiu
  14. O Jesulein süß, o Jesulein mild (O Little One Sweet), carol (NEH No. 31)
  15. Shepherd's Cradle Song
  16. How Far Is It to Bethlehem? (Children's Song of the Nativity) (Tune: Stowey) (English)
  17. The Truth From Above
  18. Up! Good Christian Folk, and Listen (Piae cantiones)
  19. Remember, O thou man (from Melismata, 1611)
  20. Quittez pasteurs (O come away ye shepherds) (French)
  21. The Lord at first did Adam make
  22. The infant King (Basque)
  23. Ein Kind geborn zu Bethleham
  24. And All in the Morning ("On Christmas Day"), carol for chorus or voice & piano (Traditional English
  25. Of the Father's heart begotten (A Christmas Procession)
  26. In dulci jubilo (II), chorale prelude for organ, BWV 729 (BC K115)

     

CD2

One could be forgiven for thinking that carols, like turkey and cranberry sauce, have always been a feature of Christmas celebrations. Certainly many of the best-loved examples date back as far as the 15th century. When Sir John Falstaff tucked into his Christmas pud, his retainers no doubt serenaded him with a lusty rendition of the Boar’s Head Carol. However hard the medieval church tried to stop people enjoying a jolly good sing at Christmas (and it tried pretty hard), the carol prospered, supplanting monkish chant as the most popular form of Yuletide devotion.

Almost everybody today knows the tune, if not the words, of at least one carol. But it is a matter of luck that any of the traditional tunes survived at all. The rot well and truly set in during Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, when the pursuit of fun became a decidedly risky business. In 1647 Christmas Day was abolished altogether by parliamentary decree (a decision that might still receive the support of some beleaguered parents). Drab Puritan hymns replaced such rousing carols as The First Nowell and The Holly and the Ivy. Of course, such an absurd law proved about as practical and popular as the Poll Tax of more recent memory. People still sang carols, even if they did so quietly, and the popular tunes were passed from one generation to the next. Some, like O come, all ye faithful, were strong enough in their own right to become Christmas ‘standards’.

The text of Patrick Hadley’s I sing of a maiden can be found in a 15th-century manuscript, where it languished until scholars began to unearth the many treasures of medieval English lyrics during the 19th century. Just as old texts were overlooked, so too were the traditional tunes associated with them: they were preserved only in the memories of a handful of country people or in a few dusty manuscripts until they began to be taken down and arranged around the turn of the century by John Stainer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp and others.

On Christmas Eve 1919, King’s College, Cambridge, began its annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and

thus added an extra stamp of propriety to tunes that had started life as simple folksongs. Faced with the task of supplying a variety of Christmas music, the successive organists of King’s have turned their hand to carol arrangements. Most celebrated are those by Sir David Willcocks, whose name must now be familiar to carol singers throughout the English-speaking world

Carols From Kings College Cambridge • Carols From Kings College Cambridge • Carols From Kings College Cambridge • Carols From Kings College Cambridge •

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