AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR

Australian and Ukranian Carols of Birds

A Ceremony of Carols within a ceremony of carols, Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece for choir and harp in the first half of this program is complemented by Renaissance settings of some of the same texts (by Ockeghem and Sweelinck) in the second half. The result is a kind of infinity mirror that casts new light on the music in both halves of the program. At the core of the second half is a setting of the anonymous poem that’s at the centre of Britten’s work – There is no rose (c.1420), one of the earliest examples of polyphony. An Australian-made mirror must needs include the work of Australian craftsmen – in this case the first performance of a new carol by Alan Holley takes it’s place beside two light-hearted Australian arrangements of well-loved carols.

Carol of the Two Crows
Text by Mark Tredinnick, music by Alan Holley (born 1954) first performance
Mykola Leontovych (1877–1921) Shchedryk (Ukrainian Bell Carol)