Wishing all our friends and supporters a peaceful Christmas
Here are some offerings from our Virtual Choir recorded December 5th 2023 for our Christmas Zoom get together
Gaudete
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!
Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ
Devote reddamus.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!
Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!
“Gaudete” is performed by our Virtual Choir with a little help from ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE singers, Samantha Houston, Margaret Cameron, Julian Stocker and Gwion Thomas.
Virtual Choir
Sarah Cole
Lynn Davy (soloist)
Lesley Kendall
Cathy Lynch
Frances M Lynch (leader)
Angela Mehlert
Martin Williams
This year the ELECTRIC VOICE VIRTUAL CHOIR decided to write their own song… so here it is!
Please Sing along!!!
CHORUS
Sing sing sing
Singing makes me happy
Singing brings me joy
It takes me to another world of music to explore
Verse 1
Singing for Christmas with the Virtual Choir
Hoping the notes won’t go too much higher
Change the Zoom background to a festive scene
Try to remember what the signs all mean
CHORUS
Verse 2
Singing at Christmas in the virtual choir
Means we don’t wrap up warm just cosy up to the fire
There are children wearing reindeer hats singing in the snow
They can’t keep their candle flames alight though their faces seem to glow
CHORUS
Verse 3
It’s friendly, fun and festive, that’s the appeal:
The choir may be virtual but the joy is real!
Mute the microphone and turn on the light
Sing and sign and smile with all your might
CHORUS
“Hymn for Christmas Day”
Jane Savage (1752 – 1824)
arranged for virtual choir and organ
“Hymn For Christmas Day” by Jane Savage (1752 – 1824) is a setting of the famous carol – “Whilst shepherds watch’d their flocks by night”.
It was published in 1785 in a collection by William Gawler for the Asylum for Female Orphans.
I found this score accidentally, while rooting about in various archives for something quite different! Later, as I looked for information about Jane Savage online, I came across Rachel Webber, a postgraduate student at the University of York, who had uncovered the hymn a few years ago and had it performed in Ely Cathedral by their excellent Girls Choir. She also had a modern score for unison voices published for choirs to use – you’ll find it here. She is keen for the hymn to be used so please spread this information far and wide!
Our arrangement is very different, being for our Virtual Choir and some of the Electric Voice Theatre Singers, so I’ve created harmony parts from her score while keeping to her directions for using chorus, semi – chorus and solos.
We love it – there is joy in every note!
We don’t know a great deal about the composer, Jane Savage, except that she was a harpsichord player too and that her father was also a composer. She may have moved with him from Kent to Red Lion Square in Holborn in the 1780’s during which time most of her work was published. This is an important coincidence for us, as we’ll be spending lots of time there in 2023 ourselves – working with Conway Hall to promote the life and work of composer Eliza Flower!
“O lovely voices of the Sky”
Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
for solo voice & piano
Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
Tinted lithograph of a drawing by Mrs E Bridell Fox, 1898/99 courtesy of Conway Hall Ethical Society
Find out more about this important composer and hear more of her music here
The words of the song were written by
Felicia Hemans (1793 –1835)
….of “The Boy stood on the burning deck” fame!
O lovely voices of the sky,
That hymned the Saviour’s birth!
Are ye not singing yet on high,
Ye that sang, “Peace on earth”?
To us yet speak the strains
Wherewith, in days gone by,
Ye bless’d the Syrian swains,
O voices of the sky!
O clear and shining light, whose beams,
That hour Heaven’s glory shed
Around the palms, and o’er the streams,
And on the shepherd’s head;
Be near, through life and death,
As in that holiest night
Of hope, and joy, and faith,
O clear and shining light!
O star which led to Him, whose love
Brought hope and mercy free;
Where art thou? – ‘mid the hosts above,
May we still gaze on thee! –
In heaven thou art not set,
Thy rays earth might not dim,
Send them to guide us yet,
O star which led to Him!
