The Choir’s Sandbox

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s setting of “The Salutation Carol”

One of RVW’s last works was a collection of music for a nativity play, “The First Nowell,” which was first performed in 1958. John France has a helpful essay about the work online at MusicWeb International.

“The Salutation Carol” is used twice in the work. Here’s the first instance of it:

And here’s the second (and shorter) instance:

Both of these performances are by the Joyful Company of Singers and the City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox.

Music by Richard Rodney Bennett

The setting of “The Salutation Carol” that we’re singing next week was arranged by Richard Rodney Bennett, who died in 2012. I’ve run across his work for decades, in a variety of places. For example, he did a lot of movie and TV soundtrack writing, from one of the first Doctor Who episodes to Murder on the Orient Express to Enchanted April to Four Weddings and a Funeral.

He was also an accomplished jazz pianist, wrote three symphonies (one commissioned by the New York Philharmonic), and a lot of choral music; the Cambridge Singers filled a CD called Sea Change with songs, carols, and even a Missa Brevis.

Among Bennett’s choral compositions is a set of five carols, all based on very early texts. Here is the first in the set, a version of “There Is No Rose,” sung by New York Polyphony (from the CD Sing Thee Nowell).

The fourth in the set is “Sweet was the song” sung by Polyphony, conducted by Stephen Layton (from the CD O magnum misterium).

Another carol setting (not part of the group of five referenced above) is Balulalow. Anonymous 4 sing this on their CD Wolcum Yule.