Three recent Nativity Carols by Alan Bullard
Here are details of a newly published carol of mine, and two other recent ones as well. All three are self-published by Colne Edition, and available directly as pdf downloads from the companies listed in the ‘further details’ below or printed copies to special order from me.
The newly published carol is Great Joy, Glad Joy – I began to write this some time ago, but put it on one side. I have now substantially revised it, and there are two versions, for SATB and SA, both with organ or piano. It is based on a paraphrase of an old German text, and it is tuneful and richly harmonised: singing tenderly of the joy of Jesus’s birth and its meaning for humankind over the centuries. It has yet to be performed live: the scrolling score is digitally created.
Scrolling score here (SATB) and here (SA)
Further details here
Another recent carol is Lie Still and Slumber, for SATB and organ or piano. This was first performed last Christmas by Vivamus, director Rufus Frowde. It’s a setting of the text of ‘Watt’s Cradle Song’ and although the subject matter is similar to ‘Great Joy’ the approach is different, a more open texture and less complex harmony, focussing on the calm and gentle nativity mood. The performance on the scrolling score was multitracked by members of my family.
Scrolling Score here
Further details here
And the third carol is unaccompanied, for soprano or treble solo and SATB. Sweet babe, sang she was first performed by the Houston Chamber Choir, director Robert Simpson, in the USA and the Phoenix Consort, director Adam Whitmore in the UK; other performances are in the pipeline. Again it’s the traditional Nativity scene, and this time the words are taken from the seventeenth-century text by William Ballet. While the chorus sing an ostinato lullaby in the background, the solo soprano/treble (or semichorus) sings reflectively in the foreground. Passages of gentle ‘alleluias’ make contrasting interludes for all voices together. The performance on the scrolling score is the Houston performance, used with permission.
Scrolling Score here
Further details here
If you would like an inspection copy (pdf) of any of these, just contact me here. I’d be delighted to send you one.