"Nowell! Nowell!" Celebrates Christmas
by John Hoffacker
"Nowell!, Nowell!" was performed on Jan. 9 & 11, 2004

Every year we in Cantemus try to illuminate the holiday season. It's the giddiest time of the year, and somehow we all need it.

At the root of the Christmas story is a mystery: in the dark and cold of a winter night, a girl gave birth to a baby who many believe was God incarnate.

During the first weekend in December, we sing this story and our human responses to it. Following the cool splendor of Alleoti's Renaissance motet "Angelus ad pastores ait" (The angels said to the shepherds) we burst into the great, jubilant spiritual "Rise Up, Shepherds."

Francis Poulenc's exquisite, leaping "Hodie Christus natus est" (Today Christ is born) follows, and then Rachmaninoff's powerful "Bogoroditse D'evo" (Rejoice, O virgin). Mystery itself moved two great masters, the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomas Luis de Victoria and the contemporary American Morten Lauridsen, to set an ancient hymn "O magnum mysterium" (O great mystery).

"Nowell," or "Noel," means Christmas, or a Christmas carol, and our first half concludes with six wonderful "nowells": Mathias's dancing "A Babe is Born," two French carols, a lightning-fast "Adam Lay Ybounden" by Hubert Bird, and "Go Tell It on the Mountain."

Our second half brings the mystery and the story home. Home is, after all, the centerpiece of the Christmas story. Parents' love and a warm place where we care for one another have given us all life. John Rutter's setting of Kenneth Grahame's beloved story "The Wind in the Willows" celebrates discovering home as the place we need and love best. It's a delightful piece, with the chorus imitating an antique car and (slightly) out-of-tune Christmas carolers (we need to practice this!) and soloists singing the roles of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger.

Bring the whole family. Happy Holidays!

Further reading: A Choral Master's Grass-Roots Appeal