Sing Christmas – The Carol Arrangements of David Chase (Hal Leonard)

Collection of Christmas carol arrangements for SATB from the Judith Clurman Choral Series. Notes about the songs included:

Angels We Have Heard on High  (3:35)

“Angels We Have Heard on High” is a French Christmas carol. The composer is unknown.  The English lyrics were written in the 19^th century.

Arranger David Chase writes: I’ve always been drawn to “Angels We Have Heard on High.” It’s not the grand announcement of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” but rather a cheerful invitation: listen carefully because amazement is to be heard, just over the next ridge but heading our way.  And so I imagine the Heavenly Hosts going from hillside to hillside, spreading the good news: we hear them approaching from afar. On and on they come, building and building, exclaiming "Gloria!" in cascading scales.  Then off they go to the next ridge, to the next hillside, to the next cluster of shepherds, leaving the mountains to sweetly echo with joy.

This SATB arrangement, for mixed voices and piano, by David Chase, was commissioned and written for Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA recording Holiday Harmonies: Songs of Christmas (Sono Luminus). Judith Clurman conducted the first public performance on December 3, 2015, at Feinstein’s /54 Below, with Essential Voices USA, in NYC, and Tedd Firth at the piano.

The First Noel (4:10)

“The First Noel,” one of the most famous carols, proclaims the coming of Christmas. It originated in Cornwall, a county in South West England. Arranger David Chase writes: Noël!  What a strange word!   Originally spelled Nowell or even Nowel, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us that it entered the English language in the 14th century as an interjection, “a word shouted or sung: expressing joy, originally to commemorate the birth of Christ.”   The carol as we know it was first published in 1823, along with several other perennial favorites including “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”  The tune itself has often been referred to as a French carol — but it’s not!  It is English through and through, and in fact may well be Cornish.  Side note: the 1929 Cornish Songbook has the lyric “O well, O well, the Angels did say.”  Rather more blasé, it seems, on the Angels’ part.  But for us today, let’s shout, let’s sing, and when you sing, let the joy tumble forth.  Noël!  

This arrangement, for chorus, piano, and cello, was written for Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA and recorded by the ensemble on Winter Harmonies. (Acis) The first performance took place under the direction of Judith Clurman, at Carnegie Hall, in December  2016 . The arrangement has been heard on holiday concerts with the National, Toronto, and Houston Symphonies.

God Rest Ye (3:45)

“God Rest You Merry Gentlemen,” a traditional English Christmas carol, dates from the 18^th century. Its alternative title is "Tidings of Comfort and Joy.”  This arrangement can be performed with a piano accompaniment or A Cappella.

David Chase writes: I’ve always understood “God Rest Ye” as the medieval equivalent of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.  Purists will insist that a comma belongs after the “merry”, and that the song is actually telling us (or at least the men among us) to ‘remain prosperous’.  But the comma started drifting in the late 18th century, and “merry” took on a larger meaning of ‘happy’.  For the 21st century, I’ve done away with the comma, and dropped both the ‘merry’ and the ‘gentlemen’.  

In my own purely invented history of the song, I imagine that it was a raucous drinking tune before some morally upstanding cleric appropriated it for liturgical use by adding lyrics of reassurance as a celebration of the Nativity. But those incessantly dancing rhythms of the pub and the spirit of joy and camaraderie pervade and shine through (for Gentlemen and Gentlewomen alike), and tell us to fear not; to take comfort; to find joy all around.  These are meaningful words to us today more than ever when the airwaves and the ether are filled with fearful folk spouting hatred and imploring us to cower from the unknown.  So instead of embracing that darkness, let us heed the tidings, rest merry in the comfort, and dance with the joy.

David Chase arranged the English carol, “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen” for Judith Clurman and her Essential Voices USA recording Season of Light: Songs of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years (Sono Luminus). The work with recorded and premiered at the Academy of Arts and Letter in New York City in 2016.‍

Cradle Hymn (3:20)

“The Cradle Hymn,” a tune from the 18^th century, can be performed with or without the violin obbligato.

Arranger David Chase writes: “The Cradle Hymn” started life as a poem in the early 18th-century by Isaac Watts (best known for his lyric to “Joy to the World”).  Over time, the words have been set to many different melodies, but the one that caught my ear was the Kentucky version in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “American Folk Songs for Christmas.”   It seemed the perfect crossroads between the sound of the Old English carols and the High Lonesome sound of the Appalachians.  

This arrangement was written as a companion piece to the choral song cycle “Appalachian Stories,” and while I originally had written it to be a cappella, Judith had the idea to add a fiddle obbligato, and violinist Tessa Lark obliged with a gorgeous countermelody.  Judith’s chorus Essential Voices USA recorded and premiered the work at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in June 2019.  The recording, by Judith, her Essential Voices USA, and with Tessa Lark playing violin, can be found on “Winter Harmonies” (Acis).