To see the world in a grain of sand...
- pswbaritenor
- Dec 24, 2025
- 9 min read
My survey of Christmas music continues with five miniatures. They all offer a intense distillation of experiences associated with the Nativity. I suggest sampling them one at a time and sitting in silence once they have finished. Ideally, limit yourself to one piece a day. We begin with Gerald Finzi's final work, 'In Terra Pax'. This exquisite evocation of contrasting yet connected Christmas scenes is scored for chorus and orchestra, with soprano and baritone solos. The opening orchestral passage of supreme delicacy evokes a frosty, very English landscape and leads into a most tender baritone solo, setting words by Robert Bridges.
A frosty Christmas eve
When the stars were shining
Fared I forth alone,
Where westward falls the hill
And from many a village
In the water'd valley,
Distant music reached me
Peals of bells [aringing]1
The constellated sounds,
Ran sprinkling on earth's floor
As the dark vault above,
With stars was spangled o'er.
Then sped my thoughts to keep,
That first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching
By their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields
And marveling could not tell
Whether it were angels
Or the bright stars singing.
This is followed by a setting of the well-known passage from St Luke's gospel where the angel of the Lord tells the shepherds of the birth of Christ:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The words in italics are sung by the soprano soloist and the rest are taken by the chorus. After the restrained inwardness of most of the work the ff on Glory to God in the highest is thrilling. The atmosphere of calm spirituality is re-established in the final pages by another eloquent baritone solo:
But to me heard afar
it was starry music
Angels' song, comforting
as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly
to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me
by the riches of time
Mellow'd and transfigured
as I stood on the hill
Heark'ning in the aspect
of th' eternal silence.The final Christmas message is left to the chorus:
And on earth peace, Good will toward men.
This sublime piece is very well served in a recording conducted by Richard Hickox, with the Richard Hickox singers, and the City of London Sinfonia with soloists Norma Burrowes and the incomparable John Shirley-Quirk. Roderick Williams' legions of fans will probably want to know that he has recorded the work, and he does a fine job, but a comparison with JS-Q demonstrates, in my opinion, the difference between very good and great singing. Having said that, Williams' performance is part of an excellent Naxos CD entitled 'In Terra Pax' with a range of very attractive, unhackneyed carols, sung by the City of London Choir, conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton.
Next, a very brief nod to Francis Poulence and his delightful 'Quatres motets pour le temps de Noel'
These are four sacred motets for mixed a cappella choir, composed in 1951-1952 (which makes them the same age as me!)
The four motets are:
Quem vidistis, pastores
Videntes stellam
Hodie Christus natus is
These beautiful pieces, very lyrical, with just a dash of Gallic asperity, lasting just a little over 10 minutes in total, constitute brief meditations on some of the main aspects of the Christmas story. Listen to them carefully, in solitude, As for recordings, you are spoilt for choice - try the version by The Sixteen for starters.
'Weihnachtslieder' (Christmas Songs), Op. 8, another minor masterpiece, is a song cycle of six lieder related to Christmas by Peter Cornelius, who set his own poems for voice and piano between 1856 and 1870. The full title is: Weihnachtslieder : ein Cyklus für eine Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung : Op. 8 / Text und Musik von Peter Cornelius. Cornelius dedicated the songs to his sister, Elisabeth Schily. The song "Die Könige" about the Biblical Magi has been translated and published separately under the title "The Three Kings". This is a favourite for carol concerts and is often done as part of the broadcast of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Cambridge. It incorporates in the piano accompaniment Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". The songs are:
Christbaum (Christmas tree)
a) Die Hirten b) Die Hirten (The Shepherds)
a) Die Könige b) Die Könige (The Kings)
Simeon
Christus der Kinderfreund (Christ the friend of children)
Christkind (Christ child)
Cornelius wrote both "Die Hirten" and "Die Könige" in two versions. The second version of song "Die Könige" incorporates in the piano the melody of Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" in slow motion.
While 'The Three Kings' is the only one of these songs at all well known (or possibly known at all) in the UK, the entire set is charming. Cornelius wrote the songs for his sister and her children and the collection's simple, unpretentious devotion is most affecting. These songs are gently lyrical and completely sincere. All this means that the best interpretations are equally simple and unaffected. Versions by Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey are perhaps rather too sophisticated. Olaf Bar is more direct and thus more telling. The rather vulnerable soprano of Irmgard Seefried captures the mood of these songs beautifully and, if the great German alto Emmi Leisner rather smothers these little songs with her opulent creamy tone, her recording demands to be heard, not least because it was recorded in Berlin in 1944! Just think, WW2 rages and a huge range of German lieder is being recorded by accompanist Michael Racheisen and the greatest German singers of the day. This deserves, and will get, a Blog all to itself. As a final recommendation, might I recommend my son, Hugo Herman-Wilson, singing 'The Three Kings' in the King's College Choir's Nine Lessons and Carols from 2014 - it's available on You Tube.
Benjamin Britten's 'A Boy Was Born' is the longest work I'll consider here (it lasts just over 30 minutes) but I wanted to include it because, despite its brilliance, it is one of the least well known of Britten's major choral works, and is far less often performed than 'A Ceremony of Carols' for example. As so often, I am grateful to Wikipedia for the following:
Subtitled Choral variations for men's, women's and boys' voices, unaccompanied (organ ad lib), 'A Boy Was Born' was originally composed from 1932 to 1933. It was first performed on 23 February 1934 as a BBC broadcast. Britten revised the work in 1955. The composer set different texts related to Christmas to music as theme and variations, scored for an a cappella choir with boys' voices.
Britten composed A Boy Was Born at age 19 as a student at the Royal College of Music. He wrote it between 25 November 1932 and 11 May 1933. His last project at the college, it is his first major vocal work and his first mature work on religious themes. He dedicated it to his father.
The work is in the form of a musical theme and six variations setting ten different texts
dating mostly from the 16th century, with one by Christina Rossetti from the 19th century,[ so forming the first of his "poetic anthology" works. Variation structures particularly appealed to Britten: even before composing A Boy Was Born, he had started a set of variations for string orchestra which he was later to complete as the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. Later he was to compose a set of variations for his Piano Concerto, and his opera The Turn of the Screw is extensively based on the variation principle.
Texts of A Boy Was Born | ||
Movement | Title | Author |
Theme | A boy was born | Anon. 16th century |
Variation 1 | Lullay, Jesu | Anon. before 1536 |
Variation 2 | Herod | Anon. before 1529 |
Variation 3 | Jesu, as Thou art our saviour | Anon. 15th century |
Variation 4 | The Three Kings | Anon. 15th century |
Variation 5 | ||
Anon. before 1536 | ||
Variation 6 (Finale) | Noel!, Welcome Yule | Anon. 16th century |
Christmas | ||
A Christmas Carol |
A Boy Was Born was first performed on 23 February 1934 in a BBC radio concert of contemporary music. Leslie Woodgate conducted the Wireless Chorus and choirboys of St Mark's, North Audley Street, London. Sir Edward Elgar died the same day.
To me, 'A Boy Was Born' has the chill of winter running through it. It is never jolly and only occasionally celebratory (even then in a rather severe way) but it encourages us to face some of the harsher realities of the Christmas story. Christ was not born into luxury: like T.S. Eliot's Magi, he had a cold coming and was hardly made universally welcome. This remarkable early masterpiece requires concentration but yields rich rewards. The most effective movement, 'Corpus Christi Carol' is often performed as a stand alone work. There are many excellent recordings of 'A Boy Was Born': my favourite is from the Gabrieli Consort, conducted by Paul McCreesh, but the 1957 version featuring the Purcell singers, with Britten himself conducting, is well worth hearing.
My final choice, Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Christmas Carols' is a real Christmas chestnut, and none the worse for that; it is deservedly popular. It ranges beyond the birth of Christ to consider the question of faith more generally. The opening baritone solo, like the rest of the work, mingles the spititual with the domestic:
This is the truth sent from above,
The truth of God, the God of love,
Therefore don't turn me from your door,
But hearken all both rich and poor.
The first thing which I do relate
Is that God did man create;
The next thing which to you I'll tell
Woman was made with man to dwell.
Thus we were heirs to endless woes,
Till God the Lord did interpose;
And so a promise soon did run
That he would redeem us by his Son. have someth
Fantasia on Christmas Carols is a 1912 work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra by the
It was first performed on September 12, 1912 at the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral; it was conducted by the composer with the baritone Campbell McInnes.
The single-movement work of roughly twelve minutes consists of the English folk carols "The truth sent from above", "Come all you worthy gentlemen" and the Sussex Carol ("On Christmas night all Christians sing"), all folk songs collected in southern England by Vaughan Williams and his friend Cecil Sharp a few years earlier.These are interposed with brief orchestral quotations from other carols, such as The First Nowell. The early work remains popular with choral societies, and is sometimes paired with his longer Christmas work Hodie of 1954.
Yet again, thanks are due to Wikipedia for the above. This lovely work has been frequently recorded and some of you no doubt already have a favourite version. I wish to mention three. A 1962 recording from the choir of King's College Cambridge, conducted by the legendary Sir David Willcocks with soloist Hervey Allen, is chorally immaculate and if it now sounds very old-fashioned with the singers' very genteel, clipped enunciation, then that is probably the sound VW had in mind. Hervey Allen, an eminent bass at Sadler's Wells and Glyndebourne was getting on when he recorded this, and some of the writing does sound rather high for him, but he has a noble voice, and his performance is totally committed. The same can be said of John Barrow singing with the choir of Guildford Cathedral, conducted by another choral legend, Barry Rose. The tessitura suits baritone Barrow rather better than his bass colleague and if, again, his singing is rather old-fashioned, it is totally authentic: he identifies absolutely with music and text. Barrow was a distinguised member of Guildford Cathedral Choir in the 1960s, and had a good provincial oratorio career, but it is this, his only commercial recording, that ensures he will not be forgotten. Overall though, I recommend Sir Thomas Allen with the Corydon Singers, conducted by Matthew Best (who died this year - far too young). The Fantasia is only a small part of one of the best RVW recordings ever made, with 'Serenade to Music', 'Five Mystical Songs' and 'Flos Campi' in addition.
I hope you'll get a chance to listen to some of my suggestions over Christmas. I had hoped to discuss Berlioz' 'L'Enfance du Christ' and Humperdinck's 'Hansel and Gretel' but ran out of time. Why not give them a go anyway?
Whatever you listen to, I hope your Christmas is enhanced as a result.
With best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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