Anyone who knows me knows that Christmas has always held a very special place in my heart. This Festival of the Incarnation has no equal! As the Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale prepares for our Wintersong 2017 Christmas concerts, I thought it might be fun to give you a look at a few of the pieces we'll be singing on December 1 and 2. In all, the Chorale will sing just over a dozen pieces of music. So, in the coming weeks, "watch this space" as I talk briefly about several of them.
See Amid the Winter's Snow
I'll start with a longtime favorite. To the best of my recollection, I first heard (or at least took note of) this wonderful piece in the early 1980s, when I found it on a vinyl record of Christmas carols. I recall being drawn to it as a particularly beautiful setting of a wonderful Christmas text by English hymn writer Edward Caswall:
See amid the winter's snow,
Born for us on earth below;
See the tender Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.
I think one of the things that captivates me about this text is the way it places the birth of Jesus, the Lamb promised from eternal years, amidst the wonder of a winter's snow. Somehow the imagery of the pure white snow helps us see the purity of the innocent Lamb, born in Bethlehem—the fulfillment of the promise long foreseen by the prophets.
Then there's the grand refrain:
Hail! Thou ever blessed morn!
Hail! Redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem."
At Wintersong 2017, the Chorale will sing this carol in an arrangement by Dan Forrest. Dan is a relative newcomer to the choral world, but he has burst on the scene with some wonderfully captivating pieces! Perhaps the most striking feature of his arrangement of See Amid the Winter's Snow is his use of a recurring Alleluia. Inserted between stanzas and their own refrains, Dan writes a soaring four or five measures with the single word Alleluia—a word of apt praise in response to the news the choir is singing!
Add to all of this a flowing accompaniment for piano and strings, and you have what I'm quite certain will prove to be a highlight of Wintersong!
Next time we'll take a look at an upbeat selection: John Rutter's rollicking treatment of Deck the Hall.
Don't forget: it's not too early to mark your calendar for Wintersong 2017: Christmas with the Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale. There will be two performances—Friday, December 1 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, December 2 at 3:00. Both performances will be at College Church in Wheaton. More information is available here on the Chorale's website.
Greg Wheatley
Music Director, Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale