Welcome the Child carol concert

This coming Sunday the music ministry will present a carol service we are calling Welcome the Child. The title is drawn from a modern Christmas carol by Marty Haugen that will be part of the program. In fact Haugen wrote and arranged an additional 12 or so carols to constitute his own carol service using the same title. I performed that entire program some years ago in Richmond. I've used several of the carols in various settings over the years. This year I am using several, but not all, of Haugen's arrangements for this carol service.

Our Chancel Choir will sing "Welcome the child," "Pat-a-pan," "Good Christian friends, rejoice," "A stable lamp is lighted," "Twas in the moon of winter-time" (all by Haugen), plus Andre Thomas' "African noel." The Prophets of Praise will sing two additional Haugen arrangements: a new carol called "Hodie Christus natus est" ("Christ is born today") and a medley of "Infant holy, infant lowly" and "Silent night, holy night."

Our children's choirs, the Aerie Singers and the Carol Choir will sing Haugen's "Carol at the Manger."

The Tune Weavers will sing a setting of "Lo, how a rose e'er-blooming" and will be the TB voices in an SATB setting of "While shepherds watched their flocks by night," to the tune SHERBORNE in a new arrangement by Winges from OCP. We'll have four SA choir singers to fill out the octet format we'll use for this performance.

The Adult Handbell choir will ring a setting of "In the bleak mid-winter." The youth ringers, Aaron's Bells, will ring a setting of "Good King Wenceslas." We will have a piano/organ duet setting of "Joy to the world."

It will be a great program! It will begin at 7PM and child care will be available. Please join us, and support the hard work and dedication of our church's musicians, and hear some wonderful Christmas music!

By the way, the adult bell ringers and the Tune Weavers will be the musical diversion at an open house at the Presbyterian Heritage Center in Montreat, this Wednesday afternoon from 3PM. Drop by, see the center, nosh, and hear some nice carols sung and rung by some friendly folks!

Carol Singing

The January 2009 issue of British Heritage magazine has a nice article on carol singing in Britain. It discusses the development of carols and carol singing, their repression under Puritan rule and restoration after 1700. Also discussed are some favorite secular and sacred carols. The article reveals some historical tidbits: the word "waits" associated with carolers is the early word for the town watchmen. Wassail come from two old Anglo-Saxon words, waes hael, meaning "be healthy." The articles of the issue are not yet on-line, but likely will be in a few weeks here. Thanks for Mary V. for sharing the magazine. She wouldn't be satisfied unless I also mentioned that there is an article on John Rutter which includes a picture of the maestro holding a cat, of all things! Choral singers especially will find both article interesting.