Songs For All Seasons

Today is the Feast Day of St. John the Evangelist (c. 6 AD – c. 100 AD), the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos (the author of the Book of Revelation), and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on how many of these may actually be the same individual. This is a setting of a poem or hymn from hymn or carol from a book called "New Christmas Carols, 1661 AD" - there is no author attributed to it. Despite its title of "On Saint John's Day" it's actually mostly about Christmas food, mince pies particularly. This is apt as, like many others I am sure, I overbought for Christmas - as I do every year - and still have plenty of Christmas food in the house which we are slowly eating through, including mince pies! So please enjoy this song while you eat your mince pies, secure in the knowledge that you are conti...

Merry, Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you are enjoying your Christmas morning and commiserations to those of you with young children who were no doubt up at the crack of dawn, fizzing with excitement about Father Christmas arriving!!! I promise, it does get better! I had to actually wake my 17-year-old up this morning to come down for presents. Today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem called The Star of Bethlehem by William Cullen Bryant (1794 – 1878), an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. Born in a log cabin in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poetry early in his life. Bryant wrote this poem as a hymn for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Church of the Messiah in Boston, Massachusetts. It was also sung at his funeral. In praise of the Star of Bethlehem., it rejoices that children are led to the Saviour by the Star and entreats that this continue. The Star of Bethlehem B...

Happy Christmas Eve all you lovely people! Christmas is of course the time of year when choirs sing songs that require them to imitate bells and I have naturally continued this time-honoured tradition in today's featured Song of the Day.  For Christmas Eve, I have for you a setting of a poem called "The Song of the Bells" by Canadian poet Jean Blewett (1862-1934). With a title like that, how could I resist the urge to have my choirs ding-donging away! With echoes of Charles Dickens' famous novella "A Christmas Carol" this song tells the tale of an cynical, selfish old man who, long since having lost his enjoyment of Christmas, finds joy again in giving to others on Christmas Eve. The Song Of The Bells By Jean Blewett He frowned and shook his snowy head. "Those clanging bells! they deafen quite With their unmeaning song," he said. "I'm weary of it all to-night - The gladness, sadness. I'm so old I have no sympathy to spare, My heart has...

Today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem that has been set to music several times before. I only discovered this after I had written my setting, and mine is very different, being written with a four-part choir in mind rather than in the easy-listening style of the others. Some of you may already be familiar with other musical settings of this poem, or at least select verses of it, by Johnny Marks, Casting Crowns, as well as others. It is a setting of the poem "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882). Longfellow's original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", and "The Song of Hiawatha". He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. "Christmas Bells" was written on Christmas Day in 1863 during the American Civil War, a month after his son was severely wounded in battle. The song tells of the narrator hearing Christmas bells during...

Continuing our Yule theme with only 3 days to go until Winter Solstice, today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem called "The Mistletoe" by Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874). Unusually for a poem it has a chorus of sorts, which lends itself nicely to a musical setting. This song is being beta tested by my friends The Mearns Singers and I am very much looking forward to hearing their recording of it! Bryan Waller Procter was a Yorkshire man and a lawyer, educated at Harrow and schoolmates with such notable fellows as Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel, who was to become Prime Minister. He began writing poetry in 1815 under the pseudonym Barry Cornwall. This poem is written from the point of view of young ladies who enjoy watching their menfolk bring in various evergreens to decorate the house, beginning with laurel and holly, but then the poem takes a slightly cheeky turn when the men "laugh low" and bring in the mistletoe. The Mistletoe By Bryan Waller Procter ...

We are well into the heart of Christmas season now - winter solstice is almost upon us, Christmas shopping is in full swing, trees are up and spirits are high - that Out of Office is just around the corner! As well as writing "Christmas" songs, I decided to also write "Yule" songs - looking at the Yule traditions that have been incorporated into our modern-day Christmas celebrations, such as singing, lighting candles, decorating our homes with holly and mistletoe, burning a Yule log, decorating a tree branch (later a whole tree), and of course, feasting! Today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem called The Story of the Holly Sprig by American poet Arthur Upson (1877 – 1908). Upson's life was tragically brief, ending at just 31 when he fell from a boat, either inadvertently or, as some speculated, in a heart-breaking act of despair. In the heartfelt tributes that followed his passing, he was hailed as a bright talent, with his work drawing comparisons to...

Today's Song of the Day is an alteration from what I had originally planned to share, as yesterday I received the first beta choir recording back from one of my lovely partner beta choirs - The Faringdon Singers ! They performed the world premiere of one of my Songs for all Seasons and sent me the video the very next day. I confess I had a huge happy grin on my face the entire time I listened to it. I have had my music performed before, but only by choirs I already ran so they had no choice but to sing it. This was the first time in my entire life that a group of people who don't know me chose to learn and sing one of my songs! I actually had no idea how emotional it would make me. So, THANK YOU, Faringdon Singers, for making my day yesterday.  The song was "Merry Souls", a song for Christmas Eve, the words of which I found on Project Gutenberg in an old Christmas book of poems called "Round About Our Coal Fire" published in 1796. I have since learned (liter...

Today's Song of the Day is our first Christmas-themed song! Today is of course the feast day of St. Nicholas. Dutch families took the tradition of celebrating the feast day of St. Nicholas with them to New Amsterdam in the American colonies, beginning as early as the 17th century. They referred to him as Sinter Klaas. That name became Santa Claus to the early United States’ English-speaking majority. Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and travelled the countryside helping the poor and sick. Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. In 180...