Programme Note

Wintersongs is a short cycle of carol settings, born of restorative nostalgia: returning to familiar and much-loved Christmas texts, each already carrying a rich history. In setting them, I responded to these texts through the lens of my own musical language and impulses. While the three movements are harmonically interwoven and conceived as a cycle, they can also be performed independently.

The first movement sets the medieval text ‘There is No Rose’, taken from the Trinity Carol Roll (c. 1420). Ever since singing Britten’s setting as a chorister, I have been struck by the carol’s mystical, enigmatic quality, lent in part, perhaps, by its macaronic text. My setting seeks to evoke that sense of mystery, alternating shimmering, augmented harmonies with simple, chant-like Latin refrains.

The second is a setting of ‘Away in a Manger’, an American Lutheran text which is cherished across the world at Christmas. What drew me to the text is the sense of vulnerability it gives to Mary, portraying her as a new mother filled with wonder gazing at her newborn child. In that moment, the universal human story that lies at the heart of Christmas comes vividly into focus.

The final setting is Christina Rossetti’s nativity poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’. Her poetry evokes a  bleak, chilling winter landscape, and my setting reflects this through simple, stark textures and a deliberately austere sound world. In the second verse, a small semi-chorus sings above a cloud of hummed harmonies provided by the tutti choir. My intention is for roughly one-third of the choir to perform the semi-chorus. In a chamber choir of, say, 24 singers, this would mean 8 voices for the semi-chorus, with the remaining 16 gently singing the tutti parts.

Taken together, I hope these three texts provide the cycle with a sense of proportion: from the transcendental mystery of the Virgin Mary, the intimate focus on the Christ-child, and Rossetti’s personal reflection on faith.