Wed 12/9 @ noon
For those who are tired of overplayed holiday pop standards, Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols is a welcome change of pace — a different kind of holiday staple. The eleven-piece song cycle is based on medieval carols in archaic English with flourishes of Latin, written for female voices (or children) and harp.
Announcing itself and wrapping up with the plainchant-style “Hodie Christus Natus Est,” it wends its way through tunes like the bright “Wolcom Yole!” and loving tributes to Christ’s mother, “There Is No Rose” and “As Dew in Aprille.”
Britten wrote the piece under unlikely circumstances. The British composer had been living in the U.S. but after World War II escalated, he felt the urge to return home to England. In the spring of 1942, he crossed the Atlantic by ship and wrote this suite of Christmas carols on board.
The sopranos and altos of the Trinity Cathedral Choir will perform the piece at the cathedral’s free weekly Brownbag concert. They’ll be joined by harpist Jody Guinn, who teaches at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and is the principal harpist for the Akron Symphony Orchestra.
Bring your lunch and enjoy the music. You can also buy a lunch there for $5.
trinitycleveland.org/music-and-art/brownbag-concerts/
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115