Month: November 2016

Music for Christmas

On 10 December, 7.30 pm at Holy Trinity, Southport, we shall be giving our first concert under our new Director of Music, Marc Murray. As is usual for our December concert, the music has been chosen with Christmas – in all its different aspects – in mind.

The most substantial work on the programme is a Magnificat, Mary’s words of exaltation after the Annunciation, which are regularly performed as part of Evensong, but are particularly relevant at this time of the year. The setting we shall be singing is by Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), a Baroque composer who was very influential on J.S.Bach.

Shorter pieces range from William Byrd’s lovely lullaby, ‘Lullaby my sweet little Baby’, to new carols by composers of the 21st century (including, of course, the ever-popular John Rutter), as well as new settings of more familiar words.

One piece which the choir has, perhaps rather surprisingly, never performed before, is Holst’s ‘fantasy on old carols’, which he calls Christmas Day. We have sung Vaughan Williams’s Fantasy on Christmas Carols (1971, 1987, 2008, 2012), and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit (1970, 2009, 2015), which is composed around French carols, but this will be our first performance of the Holst.

There will be opportunities for the audience to join in and the accompaniment will be provided by Robert Woods on the organ.

Tickets: £10 at the door, or 01704 535208.

And the interval refreshments will include mince pies!