A Note from the Chairman – December 2022
We don’t normally associate Stanford with Christmas music. His students Ralph Vaughn Williams and Gustav Holst both wrote a large number of Christmas carols, but who has heard of any Christmas Carols written by Stanford ?
I was reminded of this when I saw the free CD that is included with the 2022 Christmas edition of the BBC Music Magazine. This includes a carol by each of Vaughn Williams and Holst, as well as Welcome, Yule! by Parry. I believe that the Parry carol is from “An Edwardian Carol Book” , a book of 12 Carols for mixed voices edited by Jeremy Dibble and published by the Oxford University Press.
This volume also includes three carols composed by Stanford. These are “ A Carol for Christmas”, “ A Carol of the Nativity” and “As with gladness men of old”. None of these works has been commercially recorded, although Stanford’s “A Carol for Christmas” was recorded several years ago and released on a demonstration CD included by the Royal School of Church Music with its quarterly magazine.
More recently the SOMM CD of Stanford Children’s Songs (SOMMCD 0655) released earlier in the year included two carols from Stanford’s Opus 175. These are the Winds of Bethlehem and the Monkey’s Carol. These are both settings of poems by Winifred Mary Letts. Jeremy Dibble has recently arranged the Winds of Bethlehem for SATB with organ accompaniment. Coincidentally, in a recent article in “Cathedral Music”, Dr. Martin Neary, former Organist and Music Director at Westminster Abbey, talks about singing Stanford’s The Monkey’s Carol at Buckingham Palace in December of 1954 during his time as a boy chorister with the choir of the Chapel Royal.
Another new recording of Stanford’s solo songs issued during 2022 on the DA VINCI CLASSICS label (C00608) includes “ A Carol of Bells” with a text by Louis N. Parker. This was written by Stanford in December 1915 as a patriotic song to salute those who had fallen in Flanders. There is a also a version for SATB.
In addition to the above, Jeremy Dibble’s biography of Stanford includes details of at least a further five Christmas Carols written by Stanford. The Society is planning to sponsor a recording of all of Stanford’s carols together with previously unrecorded anthems with the Gloucester Cathedral Choir on the SOMM Recordings label during 2023.
I hope that you and your family have a Happy Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year.
