Jonathan Shaw

     The second Christmas Chorale following the yearly tradition I had set myself from the previous year. This was written during December 2013 at my home.

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     Compared to my previous "Christmas Chorale", this one is far more sophisticated and less cliché to some extent. I enjoy it much more as, once again, it involves swift counterpoint that I wrote with Bach's chorales in mind. The lyrics, for the first time, are not my own, but instead are of an anonymous Christmas Hymn from Boston around 1885.

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     I attempted to use the same music for the sopranos each time the chorus returned, but I legitimately forgot that this was what I was doing for the third and final choruses, and instead accidentally wrote new music. I never changed it, as it worked too well with the new music. I apologise to tenors for their ‘A’ towards the end – you can make it! Nevertheless, I do see a remarkable progression from my earliest chorales demonstrated here, and I can thank my college chorale exercises for that. Otherwise, I probably would not have learnt the rules of counterpoint as early as I did.

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     I was tempted to try and get my local church choir to have a go at singing this, but I never did as I figured it might be a bit challenging with the increased polyphony. A year later, during the winter of 2014, I would later submit this piece for the University of Surrey carol competition. I wasn’t entirely sure that I submitted it to the right place, as I never heard anything back from it. On the original score you can note the original 'C' number I had given this piece when I completed it.