Music for Christmas XLVIII
For the members of the New England Chamber Choir and their listeners, nothing invokes the spirit of Christmastide more than music. For forty-eight years, Richard Wm. Donohue has selected the finest music and poetry from this extraordinary repertoire. With works spanning eleven centuries, Music for Christmas is a reflective and inspiring program.
Following one half-hour of instrumental music, the concert begins with” a Gregorian Chant for the third Sunday of Advent: Excita Domine. As the chant fades, the choir begins a grand procession to the front of the hall hailing “redemption’s happy dawn.” The concert continues with works of Orlando di Lasso, Richard Wm. Donohue, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Tomás Luis de Victoria, along with carols in several languages, all celebrating the great mystery of Christ’s birth. Ensembles of men and women’s voices along with solo offerings add detail and clarity to the rich full sound of the choir. The audience itself unites with the choir singing “Hark the Heral Angels Sing” while the entire ensemble files into the aisles. As the final notes of the soprano descant resound, the room falls into silence. The concert ends as it has for thirty-eight years, with Franz Grüber’s miraculous “Stille Nacht” which sounds forth loudly that “Christ the Saviour is here.”