Easy Christmas Choral Music
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    Hi folks -
    My choir was a little disappointed last year when I didn't have them sing choral prelude to the 4pm Christmas Eve Mass. Is there anything easy, but dignified that we could throw together to sing before Mass? I'm not all that concerned about it because people will be chatting over it anyhow, I'm sure. But some easy SAB or SATB pieces that we could throw together would be good. I, of course, could so some research on my own, but sometimes it's better to ask those with experience first.

    The choir is capable. Past repertoire has included: Jesu! Rex Admirabilis (Palestrina), Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart), Cantate Domino (Pitoni), Adoramus Te (Dubois), etc. We're currently working on taking the next step to more individual parts in rehearsing Victoria's (attr.) Ave Maria which is coming a long nicely.

    Thanks for any help!
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    In terms of tone/register of the piece to be chosen, if possible I would suggest that it partake of the sensibility of that a prelude for 4PM is a hinge into Christmas, not quite yet the fullness of the solemnity (especially a prelude) - you are entering into the darkness that shall not overcome the coming Light. There's an aspect of this that is a Wachet Auf! moment - a moment of alert for the arrival of the Bridegroom.

    Then again, this is coming from someone who laments how often Christmas Day is an afterthought rather than the centerpiece....
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    It depends on how "Christmassy" the 4 PM is: in some places it is a hinge between Advent and Christmas, in other places its already full-on Christmas, especially if the 4 PM has come to be the substitute for a now-missing Midnight Mass -- by which I mean, the parish, in days of yore, had three Christmas Masses: Midnight, Day, and Dawn; but switched out the Midnight for the Vigil (which is different from the old Vigil in the EF), and now has only Vigil, Day and Dawn.

    If the latter is the case (which it often is), based on previous repertoire listed, perhaps the opening movement of the Vivaldi Gloria would be appropriate and doable, it's mainly homophonic, with a little bit of polyphonic writing in the final "in excel sheets".

    I would, however, strongly avoid any version of "Minuit Chretiens". (Or, as one singer I have called it, "Minute Cretins".)
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    I have long admired just the regular version of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" as an exemplary example of 4-part writing— if I ever had SATB to think about, that is something simple I would eventually want to do (unaccompanied).
    Thanked by 3Liam rich_enough janetgorbitz
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Salieri

    Well, Minute Cretins is infinitely better than the terrible English inspired-by (paraphrase is not accurate) version, which should be euthanized.
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    I like to sing some of the Advent hymns we've learned as well as Christmas tunes or Chants. Lo How a Rose; The Truth From Above; Creator of the Stars of Night; The Angel Gabriel; Of the Father's Love Begotten; Alma Redemptoris Mater; People Look East; Gaudete.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Fail not the Oxford carol books to check!
    Right full are they of simple seasonal ditties that any village choir off could pull.
    Then, there is that (by now) tiresome macaronic Psallite, by Praetorius, I believe?
    Thanked by 1a_f_hawkins
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