This year, Calne Choral’s Christmas concert ranges across a 1000 years of seasonal
music...
We shall bring the majestic setting of O Magnum Misterium, the words of which were written in
the first half of the first millennium and which resonated around St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice in the 16th century, to St Mary’s Church, Calne, the history of which extends over much the same
period. In comparison, the calm, but intense setting of Will Todd’s My Lord has come is a twenty first century composition by a composer whose works have figured in our recent
concerts.
Christmas is a happy season, and generally the music reflects this. There are always those
carols with a religious message such as O Come Emmanuel from a distant past, but others come from folk song origins. Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day, with a 16th century dancing rhythm, is one of
those, but it is probably much earlier than that. Awake and join the Cheerful Choir was known to Thomas Hardy, whose family, from his grandfather onwards, played and sung it in the early 19th
century. By comparison, Here is the little door might hardly be seen as a carol despite the seasonal setting, but bearing in mind the date (1918) there must at least be a nod, even subconsciously, to
the carnage and slaughter of the previous four years. Calne Choral will recognise the significance of this year by singing this carol.
In between will be many of the traditional carols we all enjoy, so come along and sing them
with us.
Calne
Choral
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