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Related pages: Concert Information Page, Program Notes, Repertoire, Fall 2000 O'NeaLetter article, CD: Carols_of_Christmas, Ticket Information, Order Form, Directions, Michael O'Neal, Oliver Sueing, Julie Albertson, Tom Alderman, Marissa Woodall
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 Sing We
Now of Christmas
Friday, December 1, 2000 8:00 PM
Program Notes
Many of the selections included in tonight's program fall into the category most commonly called "carol". The term "carol" originally meant any medieval English
song with a refrain, but in current usage has come to mean generally any Christmas song. Although many countries have produced carols, the carols with
which we are most familiar had their origins in England, France, Germany, and the United States. Sources include traditional folk song, secular music in general, and tunes especially composed as carols.
 Benjamin Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in 1942, while on a ship returned to
England following a three-year stay in the United States. The work is scored for treble voices and harp and utilizes medieval poems by a variety of authors. The ten movement work begins and ends with an a capella processional
/ recessional, based on a plainchant melody. The music for the ten pieces is sometimes exciting and vigorous or mysterious and somber, but at all times captivating and ingenious. A Ceremony of Carols has become Benjamin
Britten's most performed choral composition, and a much loved Christmas tradition for persons on both sides of the Atlantic.
George Frideric Handel composed Messiah in 1741 under a unique spell of inspiration.
Completed in just 24 days, it stands today as one of the most recognized and best loved pieces of Western music. Never a religious man in the same sense as
Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel became almost intoxicated with God while writing Messiah. Upon completing "Hallelujah", he exclaimed to his servant, "I do
think I saw all Heaven before me, and the great God himself." Finally, after the last monumental "Amen" had been written, he confided simply to a physician, "I
think God has visited me." Tonight's performance includes several selections from this beloved oratorio.
Following a practice begun in the mid-1920's by his father, The Rev. Bates Burt,
Alfred Burt composed a new Christmas carol each year which was included with the family Christmas card. Using at first poems written by his father, and later
those of Wihla Hutson, a life-long family friend, Burt created heartfelt and personal statements of Christmas joy, love, and tradition. This he did until his
death from cancer at the age of thirty-three in 1954. Some of his most beloved carols are heard in tonight 's medley, A Celebration of Alfred Burt Carols, arranged by Paul Johnson.
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