Highlighted in the Brockport College-Community Chorus’ “Sounds of the Season” holiday concert will be a suite of carols – some familiar, some perhaps not – arranged by noted British musician John Rutter. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 2, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 14 State Street, Brockport. Tickets for the concert are $5, and will be sold at the door. For information, call 585-395-2787.
While programming the concert, music director Elizabeth Banner wanted to include the Rutter works “because they are classic choral literature, written by one of the master composers and choral directors of our time. They are timeless in his treatment of familiar melodies. John Rutter is an inspiration and authority on the art of choral singing. We all need to hear his work.”
Rutter has spent much of his career, composing, conducting, orchestrating, or vocally arranging mostly liturgical music. In addition to more than 100 carols, for every season of the Church calendar, he has also composed extended works such as a Gloria, a Magnificat, and a Requiem. Interspersed in the Rutter suite are familiar carols, such as “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” as well as lesser-known songs, such as the charming French carol “Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella” which tells of the milkmaids Jeannette and Isabella, who run to tell the shepherds to come and see the baby Jesus in the stable. The Chorus will also perform the Rutter arrangement of “’Twas in the Moon of Wintertime,” which is considered to be Canada’s oldest Christmas carol. Also known as “The Huron Carol,” the English text uses imagery that was familiar in the early 20th century and derived from Huron religious concepts. Instead of the traditional nativity story, Jesus is born in a “lodge of broken bark” instead of a manger; visited by hunters and chiefs instead of wise men who bring “gifts of fox and beaver pelt” instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Also on the program are some holiday classics, including “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” and the Darmon Meader arrangement of “Silent Night.”
More information about The College at Brockport’s Fine Arts Series can be found at Facebook, or at brockport.edu/academics/fine_arts. The concert caps a weekend of holiday fun throughout the village of Brockport. For information about these events, visit brockportny.org/news/events.
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