CAROLS FOR BRASS 1 Joy to the World 2 Rejoice and Be Merry (Gallery Carol) 3 It Came upon the Midnight Clear 4 O Come, All Ye Faithful 5 Once in Royal David’s City 6 Deck the Halls 7 Wexford Carol 8 Ding Dong Merrily on High THOMAS WEELKES (?-1623) 9 Hosanna to the Son of David ANON., 16th-Century English 10 Rejoice in the Lord Always TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA (1549-1611) 11 Quem Vidistis Pastores? WILLIAM BILLINGS (1746-1800) 12 Boston 13 Judea SAMUEL SCHEIDT (1587-1654) 14 Puer Natus in Bethlehem GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA (ca. 1525-1 594) 15 Hodie Christus Natus Est ORLANDO GIBBONS (1583-1625) 16 Hosanna to the Son of David
SAMUEL SCHEIDT 17 In Dulci Jubilo 19 Angels We Have Heard On High 20 Good King Wenceslas 21 Greensleeves 22 I Saw Three Ships 23 Tantum Ergo/Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence 24 O Tannenbaum 25 Silent Night 26 Sing We Now of Christmas 27 O Come O Come Emmanuel 28 The Holly and the Ivy 29 Carol of the Bells 30 The First Noel 31 We Three Kings 32 Away in A Manger 33 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 34 Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming 35 We Wish You A Merry Christmas 36 Coventry Carol 37 Gloucestershire Wassail 38 O Maria, Diana Stella
THE GALLIARD BRASS ENSEMBLE Charles Larkins, Jr., Trumpet Brian Rood, Trumpet Carrie Banfield, Horn Jonathan Holtfreter, Trombone Phillip Black, Tuba with guest artists: Armando Ghitalla, Solo trumpet (tracks 14 & 17); Catherine Leach, Solo trumpet (track 17); Richard Price, Horn (tracks 9, 14, 16, 17); Corbin Wagner, Horn (track 17); George Troia, Trombone (tracks 11, 14, 17)
The term “Carol: which has come to mean simply a traditional and/or popular song in celebration of Christmas originally had no such association, in fact like so many of the traditions that have been incorporated into our Christmas season, the Carol had its origin in the Pagan observance of the winter solstice. The word Carol can be traced immediately to the French Carole of the 15th century which was a round dance of specific form: a number of verses (stanzas) alternating with a burden. This is still the musicological usage of the term today and it is form that is implied not the content when one hears of an Easter Carol or a spring Carol.
It was in 15th century England that the Carol developed, sung in English or sometimes in Latin to a variety of subjects, not necessarily devotional. Through the 16th century as the form began to be treated more freely, the subject conversely narrowed to that of Advent and Christmas. Beginning in the 17th century collections of “Christmas Carols” were published containing not only English carols but French noels and German Christmas songs, anticipating a less formal use of the word Carol. The earliest such collection to be printed appeared in 1521, of this only one leaf survives containing a Boar’s Head Carol and a hunting Carol. More such efforts appeared until Cromwell’s Puritan government banned As a dance the Carol has been traced back as observance of Christmas in 1647. far as ancient Greece. Percy Dearmer in The Oxford Book of Carols suggests that its lineage Upon the Restoration the carol books may extend back through the Carole and the reappeared but with few worthwhile carols-Latin Caraula to the Greek choros, the round indeed few carols at all mostly just seasonal dance out of which grew the tradition of the songs of poor quality. By 1822 when Davies Attic drama. Though the musical form did not Gilbert published the first modern collection of emerge until the 15th century, the Carol as Christmas carols and songs, this was done not round dance seems to have been an unbroken to exploit a popular pastime but to document folk tradition. It was condemned in the 7th what Gilbert felt was a dying tradition. The century by Saint Eligius as the evil “caraulas” same view encouraged the Reverend H.R. not to be danced on saints’ days; yet by the Bramley and Dr. John Steiner to publish in 1871 early 14th century Dante in his Paradiso uses the very important collection Christmas the word “Carole” to describe the dancing choir of saints in Paradise.
Carols Old and New, which enjoyed enormous 17th century, show, with some variance, the popularity for many years, and signaled a renewal of interest in the wealth of traditional Christmas music that has not abated.
A number of the pieces on this recording are representative of the English Carol tradition. Greensleeves, set to the lyric “The old year now has away has fled”, appeared in the collection New Christmas Carols of 1642; it was apparently already widely known as a folk tune. I Saw Three Ships was likewise long popular, and also appeared with other lyrics. Perhaps the most popular of English carols, “God rest you merry gentlemen”, was seldom, if ever, absent from a collection or broadside. Its popularity remains intact along with that of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. The distinguished tradition of holiday drinking songs is represented here by the Gloucestershire Wassail, intended to be sung by the jolly bearers of the wassail bowl and with verses addressed to every imaginable occupant of the honored household, human and bovine alike.
Angels We Have Heard on High, Sing We Now of Christmas, The First Noel, and O tannenbaum are from the body of French Noels and German Christmas songs that would have typically been interspersed with the English carols in the early collections. The familiar lyrics of the first Noel, dating to at least the
eight-syllable single rhyme iambic torset form which characterized many of the early carols and noels. The tune itself is treated here in a free fantasia like manner period In a free Fantasia-like manner.
Good King Wenceslas was originally a spring Carol “Tempest adest Floridum”, found in the collection Piae Cantones of 1582. It was not given its more familiar lyrics, by Jay M Neale, who was active in the revival of the Carol, until 1853. In this new guise it was included in Bramley and Stainers’ collection. Also of secular origin, likely pagan, The Holly and the Ivy, which was popular as a round dance performed by opposing groups of young men symbolically the holly and young women the ivy.
On the more liturgical side of this program we find the familiar advent playing song O Come O Come Emmanuel, as an arrangement combining the chant Tantum Ergo with the 17th century French melody of “Let all mortal flesh keep silence”. The Tantum Ergo is actually the last few verses of the Panga Lingua, recited to assert the certain belief in the Real Presence of Christ at the Sacrament of the Altar, and that is textually related to the popular communion hymn Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. In this arrangement, after a solo fue flugelhorn in
tones the plane song the two tunes intertwine and finally appear simultaneously, in a corral, presented by horn and trumpet. A similar interweaving occurs in Away in a Manger, this time with an American folk tune, again in a textual reference. Two carols here were written by 19th century clergy. We Three Kings owes its words and music to John H. Hopkins, who wrote it in 1857 while rector of christ’s church in Williamsport PA. A charming story accounts for Silent Night, written in 1818 by Franz Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr: the organ had broken down so the tale goes, and Pastor Mohr asked his organist’s choirmaster to provide a tune for the his poem to be performed with guitar at the Christmas Eve service. Such is inspiration. The 15th century contributes 3 tunes to this program, all of great beauty and poignancy. Lo, how a rose e’er blooming, of German origin, is still best known in the setting by Michael Praetorius, published in the collection muse sunai in 1609. The Coventry Carol comes from the English pageant of the sheer men and tailors, where it accompanied the scene portraying the Massacre of the Innocents:
“Herod the King, in his raging/Charged he hath this day/His men of might, in his own right/All you children to slay.”
The recording includes an arrangement of the Italian lauda O Maria Diana Stella, one of the few surviving melodies from a century rich in its production of these devotional hymns. The tradition of playing Christmas music on brass instruments date back dates back to at least the 17th century when musicians sounded carols from the towers of Leipzig and likely much earlier; The warmth of the sound of brass instruments complements very well indeed the beauty of this body of traditional music. The arrangements found on this recording explore a number of possibilities within the brass quintet, but all share a common purpose: to capture in some way the special magic of the sound of brass, of these wonderful tunes, and of the Christmas season. “Carol” is a word, like others in the language, that has evolved from specific to generic. The strict meaning of the word is a song form of stanzas (usually four lines) alternating with a burden (usually two lines). The generic is any song relating to Christmas, and that is the definition this recording reflects. Included here are arrangements of hymns, folk tunes, and traditional holiday songs, as well as transcrip tions of music by Palestrina, Scheidt, Weelkes, Billings, Victoria, and Gibbons. Binding them all
together is that sense of joy that has infused the Christmas music of so many centuries – the wonder, the awe, the sense of occasion, that must have been with the shepherds at that very first Christmas when they heard the angels sing the very first Christmas song: “Glory to God in
a renewal of interest in Christmas tradition more evident than in the rebirth of the Christmas carol. Not only were some of the authentic carols rediscovered (those from the 15th and early 16th centuries conforming to the alternating verse-burden form), but there was new enthusiasm for the traditional songs of the holiday season.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) published 52 volumes of hymn texts, most of them based on the Scriptures. He based his hymn Joy to the World on the 98th Psalm (“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth). It was originally set to music by a Dr. Hodges; when George Frideric Handel’s Messiah became the rage in London, however, a freely adapted tune from that masterwork became the setting of popular choice.
The Gallery Carol (Rejoice and Be Merry) was
the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
discovered in an old church gallery book in Dorset, England, by the Rev. L.J.T. Darwall (not the same Darwall known as the hymn composer). Despite its source, this tune was almost certainly in secular use- it takes quite a leap of imagination to picture this jaunty tune in a Church of England service! “Carol” collections of the 19th century (called broadsides) typically contained foreign holiday songs such as the 16th-century French Ding Dong Merrily on High, The 19th century saw, both in the United States as well as secular favorites like the Welsh tune and in England, a renewal of interest in Deck the Halls. traditional Christmas revelry. In the U.S., this was a result both of the loosening grip of It Came upon the Midnight Clear owes its Puritan morality (Christmas was made a legal words to Edward Sears, a Unitarian minister of holiday in Massachusetts in 1856) and of the Massachusetts. The text was published in 1849 influx of new immigrants, notably the Germans, in a friend’s religious journal, and was originally who came in great numbers mid-century. These set to a tune different from the one we know settlers brought with them many of the today. Richard Willis, American organist and traditions we now think of as indispensable at church-music composer, provided the betterChristmas time. In England, nowhere was the known melody in 185O. Sears’s verse also
inspired the British composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, who, between collaborations with Mr. Gilbert, found tine to set it to a tune based on a folksong. This version still appears in sorme hymnals. The history of O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis) is not so clear. This great Christmas hymn was known in Gerrmany and France as early as the 17th century. Some sources claim the melody was composed by John Reading (1677-1764), organist at Winchester Cathedral, either as an original hymn or as an arrangernent of a folk tune. Also credited by some is Marcos Portugallo (1762-1830), choir master at the Portuguese court during the early 19th century. The fact that the words and melody appear in J.F. Wade’s Cantus Diversí of 1751 make this a curious attribution to say the least; nonetheless, Adeste Fidelis is still sometimes referred to as the “Portuguese Hymn.” What is certain is that the text in general use today was written by Frederick Oakley (1802-1880) and first published in Murray’s Hymnal in 1852. Oakley, a clergyman, later served as Canon of Westminster. Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, an Irishwoman, wrote eight books of hymn texts, a total of over 400. (Isaac Watts, a century earlier, had written over 600; even this was outdone by Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist founder John
Wesley, who wrote over 6,500.) Mrs. Alex ander’s hymn of 1848, Once in Royal David’s City, though much higher in quality than most hymns of the period, typifies its time. It tells the story of the Nativity in terms children could understand and relate to with a moral lesson thrown in. The text was set to a lovely tune by Henry Gauntlett in 1858 especially happy circumstance considering the generally dismal level of English church music of the period. By contrast, the last quarter of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 17th were a time of remarkable quality and productivity in English music. This activity was centered around the Chapel Royal: two of the most prominent musicians in that group were Thomas Weelkes and Orlando Gibbons, each represented here by a setting of Hosanna to the Son of David. Weelkes, best known to his contem poraries as a madrigalist, was an organist by profession. His Hosanna originally may have been intended for secular use, as evidenced by the unorthodox scoring (undivided countertenors), the fact that it is drawn from domestic partbooks, and the inclusion of a line in Latin, “Hosanna in Excelsis Deo,” (Many secular hymns of the time were “macaronic”interspersing well-known Latin sentences with the vernacular.) Gibbons was organist at the
Chapel Royal for 20 years (1605-25). His setting and Weelkes’s make an interesting com parison-Weelkes’s is dramatic and colorful, Gibbons’s long-lined and majestic–and both are masterpieces. From somewhat earlier in the 16th century comes the four-part an them Rejoice in the Lord Always. Once thought to have been compos ed by John Redford, the work is now credited to the prolific Anonymous. The text is the Epistle for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, from the Prayer Book of 1549. In addition to the activity in England, the 16th century saw the flowering of Tomás Luis de Victoria of Spain and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina of Italy. Victoria, the younger of the two, journeyed to Rome in 1565 to pursue ecclesiastical studies; by 1572 he had suc ceeded Palestrina as maestro di cappella at the Roman Seminary. The same year saw the publication of a collection of 14 motets, including Quem Vidistis Pastores?, which is imbued with that sense of mystery associated with Spanish Renaissance music. Palestrina’s Hodie Christus Natus Est is a bright, cheerful setting (as befits the text). Typical of the period is the alternation between duple and triple meter.
Samuel Scheidt was born into a musical family and studied in Amsterdam with the famed organist and composer Peter Sweelinck. Scheidt is remembered today for his organ works and his brilliant in strumental canzonas, which modern brass players find particularly congenial. He also wrote a number of vocal works for multiple choirs, two of which are transcribed here. The Venetian style of the Gabrielis was very much in fashion during this time (ca. 1620), and Scheidt was an expert polychoral composer. Puer Natus in Bethlehem, though originally scored for two choirs, is not an antiphonal piece-that is, the two choirs do not function independently. Instead, a single soprano voice (here a trumpet) alternates with the other seven voices; Scheidt is in effect giving us two versions of the same melody, plain song and harmonized, simultaneously, to gorgeous effect.
In Dulci Jubilo, thought to have originated in the 14th century, has been arranged by countless composers from Praetorius to Bach to the present day, but never more spectacularly than in this version by Scheidt (even though Praetorius arranged it for 20 parts). Scheidt’s scoring is ten-part, including two clarini (here solo trumpets) and high and low choirs. Both the two choirs and the two
clarini function antiphonally here. As in the Palestrina work, there are several changes between duple and triple time. Despite Puritan proscriptions on Christmas celebration in late 18th century America, holiday cheer was no more absent during those years than was liquor during our own 20thcentury experiment in pro hibition. William Billings, often reckoned America’s first professional composer, published no fewer than seven Christmas songs in his songbooks. The two here are taken from The SingingMaster’s Assistant of 1778. Boston and Judea each take as their subject the angels’ announcement of the glad tidings to the shepherds. The former has a text written by Billings himself; the refrain of the latter distills, in its typically American way, the essence of the holiday itself - indeed, the spirit of this recording - “Then, let us be merry, put Sorrow away/Our Saviour Jesus Christ was born on this day!”
Richard Price
The GALLIARD BRASS ENSEMBLE was formed in Ann Arbor in 1966. The oldest permanent
group of its kind in the Midwest, the Ensemble has performed at hundreds of events, ranging from school concerts and master classes to major concert series in the Midwest and New England. Alumni of the group have been appointed to solo positions with the Detroit, Honolulu, National, and Atlanta Sym phonies, and the New Orleans, Mexico City, and New York Philharmonics. Each of the five members of the GBE is experienced both as a solo recitalist and as an orchestral performer, and all share an en thusiasm for brass chamber music. ARMANDO GHITALLA’S distinguished career included the principal trumpet positions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (of which he was a member for 28 years), the Houston Symphony, and the New York City Opera and Ballet Orchestras (these while he was studying at Juilliard). CATHERINE LEACH, a former member of the Galliard Brass Ensemble, received degrees from the Universities of Michigan and New Mexico. Currently trumpet instructor at the University of Tennessee, she has been a member of the orchestras of New Mexico, Santa Fe, Toledo, and Toluca. CORBIN WAGNER is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he was a student of Louis Stout. A former member of the GBE, Mr. Wagner is a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and teaches at Michigan State University. GEORGE TROIA is a graduate of the University of Michigan and also attended Wayne State University, where he currently is a member of the jazz studies faculty. He is an active player in the Detroit area. RICHARD PRICE, also a former Galliard member, was born in Ann Arbor in 1956 and studied horn at the University of Michigan and Juilliard. In addition to his activities as a freelance horn player and arranger in New York, Mr. Price is a member of the award-winning Borealis Wind Quintet.
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