Berberis' World

Saturday, 15th December 2007, St Mary’s, Lewisham.

Lo! He comes with clouds descending (Wesley/Cennick) – O magnum mysterium (Gabrieli) – Jesus Christ the apple tree (Poston/Smith) – O little town of Bethlehem (Vaughan Williams/Armstrong/Brooks) – A child is born in Bethlehem (Scheidt) – Nativity Carol (Rutter) – Hodie Christus natus est (Gabrieli)

Jardin du Monde by Robert Percy

The first Nowell/The shepherd’s farewell/In the bleak midwinter/As with gladness men of old/The three kings/Coventry carol/Past three o’clock/Jingle, bells/Ding dong! Merrily on high/A merry Christmas/O come, all ye faithful

As the running order suggests, this was standard Xmas fare, interrupted by the first performance of a brand new piece. Robert Percy was our adopted composer, and Jardin du Monde was the first movement of a composition called Happiness. The plan was to perform the whole piece, but it either hadn’t been finished or we didn’t learn it fast enough – I don’t remember which.

The highlight for me, however, was Gabrieli’s O Magnum Mysterium. It wasn’t the first time we’d performed it, but it really does bear repeating. There are some lovely melodic lines in this for the altos, and really glorious harmonies. Beautiful. Short, but beautiful.

Otherwise, carols tend to make me well up, primarily because they are full of musical cliches; melodies and harmonies guaranteed to elicit a very brisk blub reflex. Half time provided an opportunity to imbibe, which made my attempt at the obvious descants if not successful then certainly more likely. All in all, good fun.