4:00pm Saturday 29th November 2008
By Faith Eckersall
WHAT do YOU think is Britain’s best Christmas carol? Away in a Manger? O Little Town of Bethlehem? O Come All Ye Faithful?
Wrong. According to Britain’s choirmasters, it is the melancholy In The Bleak Midwinter, when earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone and the singer couldn’t afford a gift for Baby Jesus.
“We love that in our carols,” says Oliver Condy, editor of the BBC Music magazine, which commissioned the survey.
“We like to feel sorry for ourselves and have a bit of heaviness about us, I think that is very British indeed.”
It certainly must be because the 51 choirmasters and directors of music who were questioned placed Pearsall's 1837 arrangement of In Dulci Jubilo and Herbert Howells’ A Spotless Rose, hardly known for their singalong qualities, in second and third place.
The experts were asked to name their five favourite Carols and they placed Harold Darke’s arrangement of In The Bleak Midwinter, from 1911 – which begins with a solo voice rather than full choir – at the top.
Lovers of more jolly Christmas tunes, such as While Shepherds Watched, The Holly and the Ivy and The Twelve Days of Christmas will be dismayed to hear they didn’t even reach the top 50, although Silent Night, Ding Dong Merrily on High and Once in Royal David's City did.
The magazine’s deputy editor Jeremy Pound said: “While some of the carols nominated may seem unfamiliar, does any other song get to the very heart of Christmas as understatedly but effectively as In the Bleak Midwinter?”
He added that the carol, based on Christina Rosetti's poem of 1872, was “nigh-on perfect as a carol text”.
“There’s the winter cold, the coming of Christ, the description of the nativity scene and, finally, that ‘What shall I give him?’ moment of self-reflection. And then there’s the music.”
Despite running the Bournemouth Community Gospel Choir, traditional Christmas music is favoured by choirmaster Ali Sharpe.
“As a schoolgirl, one of my favourite memories was going to the parish church at Christmas time with the school choir,” she says.
“Not just because we escaped lessons but it was a very special experience charged with a feeling of anticipation of Christmas and honour to be representing our school.”
At that time her favourite carol was It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. “There were a few of us who could sing quite high and we were given the privilege of singing a really ethereal descant above the main melody. It was totally thrilling to hear our voices soaring up into the roof of this beautiful church. I have never heard anyone sing this descant since those days and have no idea who composed it, but can still remember it.”
Her other favourite carols are The Angel Gabriel with text by Sabine Baring-Gould and the Basque Folk Melody, and The Sans Day Carol by Percy Dearmer and Malcolm Archer.
“These days, running the Bournemouth Community Gospel Choir, I look for carols that are interpreted in a more Gospel style, and this year we are performing a version of the traditional Go Tell It On the Mountain arranged by Roger Emerson.
“It’s great! It’s got energy and pace and the choir obviously enjoys singing the piece.”
BCGC is performing this for the Aruba/Print Room/ Westbeach group of restaurants on December 15 and 23rd of December and at the St Albans Church Carol Service on Thursday 18th December.
To find out what Christmas events are taking place across the south, see the Related Links panel on the right-hand side.
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