Creating music for Christmas creates particular challenges for composers – male or female – because of the richness of the traditions for songs and choral works on texts about Christmas. Here are twelve works by eleven women from five different countries. They draw on texts from the 15th to the 21st centuries, and on musical traditions from India and Ghana as well as those of Europe and North America. The earliest work is from 1884; three are from 2022. Framed by works entitled “Peace on Earth,” this playlist focuses on works that deal with darkness and light, even in one case, terror.
Errolyn Wallen (UK/Belize) – “Peace on Earth” (2006)
Though recorded here as elsewhere by choirs, the prolific, Belize-born composer lists this as one of her five songs. While improvising at the piano, Wallen began to write the music and then the words for this often-recorded work. In addition to the French performance accompanied here with piano, there are versions available with ensembles with harp (UK), and with organ (Germany). This performance from 2022 is directed by Sofi Jeannin, with Laurent Durupt, piano, and the Maîtrise de Radio France.
Reena Esmail (US) – “The Year’s Midnight” from A Winter Breviary (2022), poet Rebecca Gayle Howell
The second of a set of three, each piece incorporates the harmonic language of Hindustani classical raags. Together the three movements mark a passage through the long night of the winter solstice. The second movement represents the Matins service and draws on the Raag Malkauns. Performed by The Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Mixed Ensemble, Alex Canovas, conductor.
“The Unexpected Early Hour” from A Winter Breviary. Movement three of the set, inspired by Lauds, is influenced by the Raag Ahir Bhairav. It celebrates the return of light and is performed by Voces8 U.S. Scholars.
Nadia Boulanger (FR) – “Soir d’hiver, 1914–1915” (1914–16), with words also by Nadia Boulanger
The notion of a Blue Christmas, now often associated with services of remembrance and grief that take place on the evening of the winter solstice, dates to well before the song that Elvis made famous. Boulanger’s song depicts the first winter of WWI, beginning with the image of a mother, weeping, singing to her child of Christmas joy while lamenting the absence of the baby’s father. A translation is available. Melinda Paulsen, mezzo-soprano, and Angela Gassenhuber, piano, perform.
Eleanor Daley (CAN) – “Come Renew Us” (2015), text by David Adam
This piece also expresses the move from dark to light, beginning “Come, Lord, come to us. Enter our darkness with your light.” Among Daley’s 150 published choral works is also “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Daley was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022. This version is sung by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, New York City, Director of Music, Julian Wachner; Associate Organist, Janet Yieh, who conducts this performance.
Sarah Rimkus (US) – “Mater Dei” (2018), on a poem by W. B. Yeats
This poem describes Mary’s “threefold terror” at becoming pregnant, and the love that “strikes a sudden chill into my bones.” Rimkus draws on a venerable “Ave Maria” chant in an effort to “give the woman herself a more meaningful human voice.” This performance in San Diego in 2019 is by Sacra Profana, conducted by Juan Carlos Acosta.
Augusta Holmès (FR/IRE) – “Trois anges sont venus ce soir (Noël)” (1884)
As she routinely did, Holmès set her own words. This folk-like Noël has enjoyed an enduring popularity in a way that no other song of hers has (César Franck quoted it in his Third Organ Chorale). Three angels visit an unhappy woman offering gifts, including the chance to see a baby cradled in a stable. She tells them to return to heaven to ask God for peace and happiness for those she loves. An English translation is available. This 2019 performance is by Aurélie Loilier, soprano, and Qiaochu Li, piano.
Cecilia McDowall (UK) – “Now May We Singen” (published in 2013)
This song is a frequently performed setting of a 15th-century English and Latin poem. It draws on musical sounds of that time, making use of drones, medieval rhythmic figures and motives. Michael Lock commissioned it in 2006 for the Concord Singers, who sang it the following year. McDowall received the Ivor Novello Award in 2020 for a “consistently excellent body of work.” At the posting of this playlist, there are nearly two dozen recordings available on YouTube. This one is performed by Genesis Sixteen (2019) in Fitzrovia Chapel in London.
Rosephanye Powell (US) – “Ogo ni fun Oluwa! (Glory to God in the Highest)” (2011)
The words are African texts provided by Henry Fadamiro, a member of the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. Among several other Christmas works by Powell is Christus natus est. This performance is from 2013 by the University of Regina Concert Choir & Chamber Singers, with REGINA SOUL! (Natasha Dixon, Conductor), conducted by Dominic Gregorio.
Catharina van Rennes (NL) – “Madonna-kindje” (Child of the Madonna), op. 54 (1906), on a poem by Louise de Clercq
A mother sings to her new baby, comparing her child to a dove that brings peace. Van Rennes wrote over 200 songs, 150 of them for children. For her work as an educator she was knighted by the Order of Oranje-Nassau in 1927. This recording from 1982 is by Thea Vermeulen, soprano, and Willie Prick, piano.
Sarah Quartel (CAN) – In “Density of Light” (2022), on a poem by Thomas Troeger
Quartel sets a Thomas Troeger poem for Epiphany about light triumphing over darkness. Ben Parry conducts the Oxford Choir (2022).
Amy Beach (US) – “Peace on Earth,” on a poem by E.H. Sears
The Christmas anthem “Peace on Earth,” for choir, two soloists, and organ, was published in 1897, the same year as her Gaelic Symphony. With echoes of Brahms, she set three verses of E. H. Sears’ familiar poem, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” This performance from 2019 is by the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, San Francisco, CA, and the Cathedral Christmas Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Bachmann, Canon Director of Music. Bachmann also orchestrated the accompaniment.
Notes
The banner photo is cropped from “The Christmas Carol” from 1888, published by the Hatch Lithographic Co., New York, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
This WSF playlist is preceded by two other December lists: one entitled 2020 Holiday Playlist, and the other Winter Playlist 2021.
