Name: Christmas Fantasia
Start: 2024-12-07T10:30:00+00:00
End: 2024-12-07T17:00:00+00:00
Location: St Mary's Church, Battersea

Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Ghislaine Morgan Associate Musical Director
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Fantasia on Christmas Carols
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Alma Redemptoris Mater
A session in live choral improvisation
Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (15th century traditional)
Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols was introduced at the 1912 Three Choirs Festival in Hereford. It deliberately sidesteps familiar carols, aiming to rejuvenate lesser-known melodies like On Christmas Night, uncovered by RVW and Cecil Sharp in Sussex, and the old English folksong The truth from above. The keen carollers amongst us might notice clever references to The First Nowell and A Virgin most pure. We precede this with a sonorous setting of the Alma Redemptoris Mater by early Baroque composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which is full of wondrous suspensions and French trills. Lastly, we will enjoy a session on improvisation using the plainchant O come, O come, Emmanuel, looking at aleatoric methods of composition and performance.