Category Archives: Performances

A BAROQUE CHRISTMAS – Australian Chamber Choir – December 3rd, 2023

Posted on by
Reply

Basilica of Mary of the Angels, Geelong

This concert was presented by ACC8, an octet from the choir, and conducted by Douglas Lawrence.

While the title suggests the program was baroque, several traditional carols, in new and older settings, were included.  A highlight was also the contemporary Australian work Two Carols of Australian Birds, with texts by Mark Tredinnick, and music by Alan Holley. 

The concert began with two harmonisations of the tune In Dulci Jubilo.  JS Bach’s harmonisation of verses 1 and 4 was complemented by Johann Walter’s earlier setting of verses 2 and 3.  Four more works from the German repertoire followed.  In Michael Praetorius’s Ein kind geborn zu Bethlehem (A child is born in Bethlehem) alternated both Praetorius’s arrangement for mixed voices with Bartholomaus Gesius’s harmonisation for upper and lower voice quartets of singers.  Singt and klingt (Sing and ring) includes a bell-like opening, and once again contrasts the male and female voices singing antiphonally.  Two motets by Heinrich Schutz, Das wort ward Fleisch and O susser Jesu Christ. 

Three French Noëls were next.  Ding Dong Merrily on High (in the well-known Charles Wood arrangement) followed by two arrangements by the Australian Chamber Choir’s Elizabeth Anderson.  Quand Dieu naquit a Noël: Noël No 10 composed for organ by Louis Claude Daquin was arranged for choir and Angels we have heard on high, to which Anderson has added a soaring descant.  This is clearly a favourite arrangement of the ensemble and was repeated as an encore with audience participation at the end of the concert. 

Travelling across the English Channel, ACC8 then sang the Magnificat from the Second Service by Thomas Tomkins, set in English.  Tomkins was organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1596, and remained in that position until the cathedral was locked up and the choir disbanded during the Civil War by the Parliamentary Army in 1642.   

Two harmonisations of the tune Josef Leiber (Resonet in Laudibus)/(Josef Lieber Josef mein) were set by Johannes Eccard (1553-1611) and Leonhard Schroeter (1533-1601). 

Two traditional English carols were next, the hauntingly tragic Coventry Carol and There is no Rose in a setting featuring various quartets of voices from the ensemble. 

Time-travelling to 21st Century Australia, the audience was treated to two carols by Mark Tredinnick (poet) and Alan Holley (composer).  The Carol of the Two Crows was premiered presented in 2022 I think.  This is a humorous tale of two crows, playing a game of clattering a purloined bone down the tin roof of an amused (and astonished) resident.  The Carol of the Butcherbird has a deeper story – contrasting the pure birdsong of the butcherbird, its merciless method of killing its prey, with the enigma of the purity of man’s music juxtaposed with man’s cruelty.  This second work was an Australian Premiere for this concert.  Both carols were commissioned by the Australian Chamber Choir. 

Two settings of the text A Spotless Rose formed the penultimate bracket – A spotless rose by Herbert Howells, and the traditional Es ist ein Ros esprungen by Michael Praetorius.   The concert concluded with JS Bach’s motet Lobet den Herrn and enthusiastic applause. 

It was an excellent opportunity to listen to this small ensemble from one of Australia’s foremost chamber choirs, here in Geelong. 

The Australian Chamber Choir will present two of their 2024 season concerts in Geelong.   For more details of this season go to the ACC website.    

If you missed BAROQUE CHRISTMAS, it will be presented again on Saturday 9th December in Terang and Sunday 10th December in Middle Park (this performance will be live-streamed and available On Demand).  Tickets and details here.