Snow On Snow: SCO Chorus in Greyfriars Kirk

Greyfriars Kirk - 19/12/23

SCO Chorus | Gregory Batsleer, chorus director | Philip Higham, cello

“A cold coming they had of it.  The ways deep and the weather sharp.”  Lancelot Andrewes’ Christmas sermon of 1622, echoed in the opening of T S Eliot’s ‘Journey of the Magi,’ develops the idea, already depicted in Peter Bruegel the Elder ‘s snow scene, ‘The Census in Bethlehem,’ of the first Christmas taking place in a northern European December.  Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ may be its most haunting treatment in British literature, and Gustav Holst’s setting, written twelve years after her death, gives it memorable musical expression.  Holst wrote it at the behest of his friend, Ralph Vaughan Williams when he was compiling his Church Hymnary in 1906 and intended it for congregational singing; it was that version which was sung earlier today at Alistair Darling’s Memorial in St Mary’s Cathedral.  Tonight the Chorus sings the first two verses in four parts, giving weight to Rosetti’s harsh descriptions of winter, especially the lines “snow had fallen/snow on snow, snow on snow” which provide this concert’s title.  After the men’s voices take the lead in verse three and the women’s in verse four, the final verse, when the narrator asks what she may give the child, is sung softly, with a slight swelling of sound in the tenors for “if I were a shepherd/I would bring a lamb” before a slower and even quieter conclusion.

Snow, the cold of the stable, the necessity to protect a fragile infant, these all recur in several of the Chorus’s Christmas songs.  Their Greyfriars concerts have become an Edinburgh festive tradition for many – both concerts this year are sold out.  It’s easy to see why: the combination of thoughtful programming with the pinpoint precision of their unaccompanied singing under Gregory Batsleer’ s imaginative conducting in the Kirk’s warm acoustic is a winning formula.

A lesser-known wintry poem was the inspiration for Peter Warlock’s ‘Bethlehem Down’ – that and the offer of a cash prize in the Daily Telegraph’s 1927 Christmas Carol competition.  His friend, Bruce Blunt, wrote the words, and Warlock quickly wrote the music which they hoped would win them some respite from financial embarrassment.  It won and they had a very merry Christmas.  The title, ‘Bethlehem Down’ suggests a quasi-British setting for the nativity, as ‘Down’ means an area of low hills (like the Sussex Downs). The text contrasts the future promise of the Magi’s gifts , “the beautiful robes” which Mary plans to give the child “when he is King” with the reality of his adulthood, “when he is King we will clothe him in gravesheets”, and the present need to keep him warm, “close-huddled oxen to keep him from cold.” It has a catchy melody which still appeals. – “after many requests” it was played on Radio 3’s Breakfast this morning.

John Taverner’s 1982 setting of William Blake’s ‘The Lamb’ begins with a simple melody which becomes palindromic, mirroring itself.   Taverner’s simplicity is a perfect fit for Blake’s repetition of “Little Lamb” and the symbolic parallels with the Christ child’s need for warmth, “softest clothing woolly bright.”

Sally Beamish’ s 2007 setting of ‘In the Stillness’,  by Scottish writer Katrina Shepherd, keeps the snow in the present day as a congregation waits in a rural church “where candles glow/in the softness of a fall/of fresh white snow.” Words ending in “ess” – “calmness,” “clearness,” “oneness,” “mildness” – build up the anticipation of the ‘cradle fair” and the “child soon to be born”.  The words and Beamish’ s calmly reverential setting have the feel of a medieval carol.

Tonight’s premiere of the Choir’s Commission from Jay Capperauld, the SCO’s composer in Residence, has a medieval title, ‘The Night Watch’, but is a modern secular song about the Scottish poet, Niall Campbell’s experiences as a new father.  Wakened by “this boy I love”, he struggles to sooth him – the choir builds up volume in multiple repetitions of the word “crying”, which capture both the child’s insistence and the father’s desperation.  There follows a prolonged “shhh” passed around the different voices, before the father ponders his need for silence.  A poignant setting of a lovely poem which confirms Capperauld’ s promise as a composer.

The SCO’s Principal Cello, Philip Higham, plays between the songs. His first piece is Hawick-born composer Helen Leach’s 2022 ‘Touch of Heaven’.  Evocative of the bird-life she encountered as composer in residence at Marchmont House, near Duns, the work explores the cello’s lower notes before ending on some higher bird-calls. John Taverner’s ‘Chant’ is played just after ‘Lamb’ and this 1995 cello solo, written in memory of a friend, carries on the gentle mystical probing of the song. In the only pre-twentieth-century work on the programme, Higham gives a fine, enjoyable performance of Bach’s elaborate and stately ‘Sarabande from Suite No 4 in E-flat.’

Alongside the Chorus’s exploration of wintry music are a number of Latin songs.  Francis Poulenc’s ‘Quatre motets pour le temps de noel’ (Four Christmas motets) is the longest work in the programme.  The awed tone in the anthemic ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ (Oh great Mystery) and the sprightlier questioning of ‘Quem vidistis pastorem’ (What have you seen, shepherds) lead to the rocking rhythms of the Magi in ‘Videntes stellam’ (You saw a star).  Finally we can all rejoice in the celebratory ‘Hodie Christus Natus Est@ (Christ is born to us today).

The concert begins and ends with two very different works in Latin. Giles Swayne’s 1982 ‘Magnificat’ reflects his study of African music and is based on a Senegalese work song. Its strong rhythms are immediately appealing, as are the high whoops for the women’s voices contrasting with the booming of the men’s.  It’s the first music I search for when I get home, but, as often happens, the SCO version is just so much better than any others! Initially the words of the Magnificat don’t sound like church Latin, and I remember noticing on my teenage travels differences in pronunciation, even in this “universal” language, between the Mass in France or Austria and the Scots or Irish voices I was used to. Does Swayne perhaps suggest a Senegalese pronunciation of the Latin?  It certainly sounds tremendous!

If the beginning is startling, the ending is moving. The penultimate work is John Rutter’s arrangement of the Irish traditional ‘Wexford Carol’ with splendid male solo in the first and last verses.  As it comes to an end, Batsleer leads some of his forces up the centre aisle while the others process round the side aisles. They stop and sing US composer Eric Whitacre’s 2000 ‘Lux arumque’ (Light and gold).  The sounds of the choir far away and the choir up close mingle and bring the concert to a breath-taking conclusion.

For further details about the singers and other Chorus personnel, plus David Kettle’s full programme notes see here.