Musicians planning repertoire for their ensembles are usually considerably ahead of the calendar. It was no surprise then that all the students on a conducting training weekend in June 2024 were set Christmas carols from a new publication, “Carols for Choirs 6”. We learned some fabulous new Christmas music that weekend, and most students programmed these carols for their choirs this Christmas – including Notability, the Whitefield choir that I practiced with ahead of the course.
My set piece was “The Owl”, by Toby Young and Jennifer Thorpe. At first look, it’s a secular winter carol. Thorpe said in an interview:
In many traditional yuletide carols and poems, a balance is posed between a dark, wild winter world and the intimate golden safety of human celebration. Pagan roots run deep here – particularly when it comes to the passing of the year – and festivals reflect that connection to darkness, with fires, feasts and revels that glow brightest through long nights. The owl, which embodies untamed wilderness and hunts under the yellow December moon, is an emblem of that delicious tie that exists between the carols sung indoors by candlelight and the bleak, beautiful midwinter beyond. Freya Parr, BBC Music Magazine, 2017
However, meaning is the prerogative of the reader, not the writer, and I see clear links with the Christian Christmas story. The chorus references the star (comet) that marked the place of our saviour’s birth, and wingbeats that rise in chorus could just as easily be the heavenly host proclaiming to the shepherds on the dark winter hillsides. There is the “sweet and solid winter dark” (In the Bleak Midwinter), the silence of the sleeping world is reminiscent of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, and the ‘ring of gold’ could easily be to do with the wise men (kings or magi) that bring precious gifts for the baby. For me, the un-resting guardian of peace” is more about the Prince of Peace than an owl in flight. The text is:
| Verse 1
|
Out in the sweet and solid winter dark
The owl is hunting on a silver wing. It skims above a world fallen asleep, And knows the many secrets of the wind. |
| Verse 2 | Within we have our comfort and our rest,
We nod engulfed in richness at the heart. The owl overhead is sleepless still, It watches the waking of the earth. |
| Chorus
|
Under this soaring heaven here is the glory written,
Fleet as a comet falling through the sky. All through the silver stillness wing beats will rise in chorus. Owl of the midnight forest, silent king. |
| Verse 3 | Praise for the ring of gold that rounds the year.
Praise for the Christmastide and what it keeps. Praise for the owl beneath the stars, Un-resting guardian of peace. |
| Chorus | Under this soaring heaven here is the glory written,
Fleet as a comet falling through the sky. All through the silver stillness wing beats will rise in chorus. Owl of the midnight forest, silent king. Soaring! |
The composer’s performance notes include this advice:
Rhythmically, this carol is full of hemiolas and cross-rhythms, which should be used to bring out the dance-like quality of certain phrases, particularly the unexpected and funky cross-rhythms. In general, care should be made to make these moments of ambiguity between 6/8 and 3/4 feel as natural as possible.
At the chorus, there should be a new injection of energy – imagine the owl taking flight and soaring! – with a new sense of excitement in the melody, and lots of consonants to make the accented notes really explode. The dynamics should really push the music forward, using the forte words (‘under’, ‘heaven’, etc) to create as much drama and propulsion as you can. Be careful to save enough breath for the big crescendos to make them as majestic as they can be.
I have written about the similarities and differences between 6/8 and 3/4 time before. Essentially the 6 notes in each bar could be grouped either into two groups of three, or three groups of two – 1 2 3 4 5 6 or 1 2 3 4 5 6. In this piece, both are going on at the same time, in different voice parts. This presented me with the crucial decision of how to beat time – in two or three. In the end I honoured the composer’s intentional ambiguity and beat it in one: 1 2 3 4 5 6.
You can hear Apollo5 singing this lovely carol here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-nzYU6ZQ7Y
Carol P
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 