Various - Christmas in Blue  

  
The Boosey & Hawkes Concerts for Choirs series is an innovative approach to concert planning. Each themed volume contains a wealth of material to help the choral director assemble a concert programme from a single source. So instead of coming on stage with a folder bulging with sheet music and albums, you can now lighten your load. No more worries in concerts about what to do with those heavy books once they have been used: one volume is all you will need. The series covers a vast range of moods and subject matter and each themed anthology contains some of the finest, most accessible choral music written. Each convenient volume contains the best of the Boosey & Hawkes choral catalogue, many specially-composed or newly-arranged pieces and other favourites.



The information included at the end of each book will give the choral director everything needed for brief concert announcements or programmes. More detailed information can be obtained from the Boosey & Hawkes website.

Christmas in Blue
 
The pieces in this ‘Christmas in Blue’ anthology are intended to present an alternative view to the traditional Christmas fare, complementing rather than superseding. The word ‘blue’ is here used in its broadest sense. One of its dictionary definitions (‘depressed, sad or melancholy’) became synonymous with music of black American folk origin that became widespread in the 1940s – hence ‘the blues’. Nowadays ‘blue’ can describe music written in close harmony, employing chordal progressions perhaps a little more daring and explicit than conventional harmonies. Additionally we have included carols which are just harmonically beautiful.

‘The blues’ is very much to the fore in Christopher Norton’s tender ‘A Blue Christmas’, comparing happier times with a now painfully lonely existence. Contrastingly, there is an exuberant setting from Robert Orledge of ‘The 12 inebriate days of Christmas’, with a suitably alcoholic slant. There are three delicious arrangements from Nigel Short, former King’s Singer and conductor of Tenebrae. Two arrangements from Carol Canning, a former Swingle Singer, sit alongside a fabulous arrangement of ‘Silent Night’ from the master himself, Ward Swingle. Will Todd offers two dramatically contrasting carols: an energetic hymn of praise (‘Every stone shall cry’) and an exquisite setting of ‘The Christ-child’. A medley from the hand of Goff Richards concludes the volume in high-spirited fashion. Whatever the circumstances and size of your choir, there will be a programme within this volume that will suit you. But more than that, the versatility of the Concert for Choirs series is such that it can be used as an invaluable resource for choral material, whatever your requirements.