I’ve often been influenced, calmed, and helped by the traditional poetry of the Celtic peoples of the Scottish Isles, and in the nineteenth century Alexander Carmichael published an enormous collection of poetry from that tradition: his employment as an officer of the Scottish Customs and Excise Department gave him the opportunity to travel to outlying parts of the Highlands and Islands and come into contact with a wide range of Gaelic folklore. His several volumes of ‘Hymns and Incantations’ called Carmina Gadelica (Songs of the Gaels) has always been in print since and has provided a sourcebook for many.
A few years ago I selected part of one of these poems to make ‘This Night’. Although it has elements of the Christmas carol about it, it also has elements which go back into the pre-Christian era, and much of my setting is about textures and contrasting sections, with a sense of growth, rather than what we usually think of as a ‘carol’. The words contain what has been described as ‘a blend of Christian and pagan imagery’ and its various sections cover a wide range of textures and moods.
It begins ‘This night is the long night’ painting a picture of remote coldness, with a lower voice solo/unison phrase accompanied by quiet organ cluster chords and the words ‘gloria, alleluia’ repeated in the upper voices. From here there is a slow feeling of growth, (the melodic phrases now in the upper voices, with ‘glory alleluia’ rhythmically in the lower), through to ‘This night is the eve of the Great Nativity’. A calmer section introduces ‘This night gleamed the sun’ (voices now contrapuntal in four parts) and the central climax point ‘This night is born Christ, the King of greatness’ (voice chords now in joyful rhythmic unison). Then things calm down again, and the last section, like a hymn-like incantation, sets the mysterious final lines ‘Glowed to him wood and tree…mount and sea…land and plain…when that his foot was come to earth’ – each line punctuated by quiet organ clusters.
You can hear the complete piece here, with some appropriate visual images, sung by The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, director Sarah MacDonald (on their CD ‘O Come Emmanuel’.
And you can hear me talking about the piece here, in a little film I made for the publisher Oxford University Press three years ago.
Originally this piece, for SATB choir and organ or piano, was published in the collection ‘Alan Bullard Carols’, This book is now out of print, but the music is obtainable as a separate digital download (pdf) from Chimes Music Digital or Sheet Music Plus, and there is also the opportunity to view the score from those pages. (There is also a printed off-print available from OUP, but the download is quicker and cheaper). There is also an orchestral accompaniment on hire from OUP.