Cornish Christmas

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1981

Label: Chough Records

Liner notes by SoundslikeCornwall:

Cornish Christmas - Well loved Christmas music sung by choristers from Methodist Churches all over Cornwall, "Young Harmony", a Methodist Youth Choir from Camborne, and Treliske School Choir.

Conductor Hubert Julian (Organist & Choirmaster, Newquay Wesley Church)
Organists Malcolm Brown (Organist Redruth Methodist Church)
Philip Davey B.Ed., L.T.C.L., (Organist & Choirmaster, Camborne Wesley Church)
Rodney Warmington (Organist & Choirmaster, St. Mary Clement Methodist Church, Truro)
Musical Director of "Young Harmony" and Treliske School Choir — Winifred Wing, A.T.C.L., A.R.C.M.

Side one:
1. Let earth and heaven combine (Tune - Adoration)
2. And there were shepherds in the same country (Bach's)
3. Break forth O beauteous heavenly (Christmas Oratorio) (Soloists: Arnold Oates & Margaret Haile)
4. Hark the glad sound (Thomas Merritt)
5. Away in a manger (arr. David Willcocks)
6. See amid the winter snow (Tune - Oxford)
7. O little town of Bethlehem (Tune - Forest Green) (Soloist: Sydney Mitchell)
8. While shepherds watched their flocks by night (Tune - Lyngham)

Side two:
1. Of the Father's Love begotten (Tune - Corde Natus)
2. It came upon the midnight clear (Soloist — Sydney Mitchell)
3. Lo! He comes an infant stranger (Tune - Noel) (Thomas Merritt)
4. Still the night, holy the night (Tune - Stine Nadu)
5. Sans Day Carol Traditional Cornish (arr. John Rutter)
6. Brightest and best are the sons of the morning (Tune - Spean)
7. Star of Bethlehem (Stephen Nicholas)
8. Hark the herald angels sing (Tune - Berlin)

There is a unique appeal in the music of Christmas. The Cornish people enjoy singing and listening to the hymns and carols which are universally loved, but also have a pride in the music of their own "Cornish" composers. No recording of Christmas music by a Cornish Choir, therefore, would be complete if it did not include examples of the work of Thomas Merritt and Stephen Nicholas, both of whose "carols" have for very many years formed a substantial part of the "staple Christmas fare" in Cornwall. They were loved especially by the Cornish tin miners who emigrated to the four corners of the earth in such large numbers during the early part of this century, and as a result "Merritt's carols" particularly, are well known in many parts of the world in which those Cornish miners settled. The best known contemporary musical "Son of Cornwall" is undoubtedly Sir David Willcocks, formerly Director of Music at Kings College, Cambridge and currently principal of the Royal College of Music, and this recording contains some of his arrangements and descants. This is the third "hymn" record we have produced within the past three years and we hope that it will prove as popular as "This side of Heaven" (our first one — now completely sold out), and our second "A Song for All Seasons" of which only limited stocks remain. As with our previous records, the Choir has beets drawn from Methodist Churches throughout Cornwall and on this record we are featuring, in the items "Away in a Manger" and "Still the Night", one of our Methodist Youth Choirs, "Young Harmony" from Camborne, and boy choristers from "Treliske" — the preparatory school to our Methodist "Truro School".

Rev. Ian Haile, B. Met., Chairman of the Cornwall Methodist District, writes —Anyone who has walked on a frosty star-lit night through a Cornish village with local band and chapel choir, hymn sheets and torch in gloved hands, will know that a "Cornish Christmas" means carol-singing. What singing it is, strong and lively, merry and exuberant, resounding far through the clear air. Whether circled in the village square, or packed in the chapel, the Cornish Methodists dearly love to sing the wonderful story of the Saviour's birth and its significance for humankind, of love, hope and peace, so needful in this world of fear, sorrow and conflict. Therefore I commend this record to you — trusting that these carols will be for you as for me — nostalgic and moving. I recall my first Cornish Christmas, as a young minister "down Lamer". What a wonderful experience it was to sing old favourites and to be introduced to local ones! I am moved as I am reminded again that joy is ours because God loves us so much. His Son shared our humanity that we may share the life of his divinity. So I pray that this "Cornish Christinas- will be a time for reliving of memories and for renewal of faith.

Recorded at St. Mary Clement Methodist Church, Truro
Recording Engineer: W. Sydney Furze, assisted by Dominic Mills
Sleeve Photograph by Donald Wage
Manufactured for Chough Records by Sound News Studios
CHOUGII RECORDS Helford, Cornwall

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