David Hill on the carols in the Dec. 8 Schola Christmas concert

Ahead of the December 8 Yale Schola Cantorum Christmas concert, Eliana Barwinski M.A.R. ’25 and member of Schola interviewed the ensemble’s conductor, David Hill, who plans to retire from the ISM in 2024. In his final Christmas concert at Yale, Hill has chosen several works from Carols for Choirs 6 which he compiled with Bob Chilcott. The latest edition in a series that began in 1961, it comprises fifty new carols that reflect the “vibrancy, energy, and diversity currently thriving in the choral world at large.” It includes the compositions of two Yale alumni—Joel Thompson’s The Rose and Margaret Burk’s What Cheer. John Rutter’s Gloria will also be performed alongside these newly imagined settings of traditional English carols.

 

 

Bob Chilcott and I took three years to trawl through hundreds of scores. We wanted new, diverse carols, expressing the talents of composers from across the world. In that sense, it is unique. Any anthology is an expression of its time and we are living in a rich and diverse culture. The previous volumes, marvellous as they were, held onto an honorable tradition started in 1961 by David Willcocks and Reginald Jacques. Knowing David as I did, I think he would be proud of how things have developed.

 

 

It was all happening during the pandemic. Dismal as that was, in many ways it also opened up new creativity and composers were really pleased to respond with their work. The fact that all our meetings happened online—except the first one with Bob, which was over beer in a pub midway between our houses—meant that we were very focused about decisions on submissions: yes, no, or unsure. Our editing chief from Oxford University Press (OUP) Robyn Elton, was amazing. She kept us in line and challenged us in all the right ways. That said, Bob and I had lines in the sand in terms of writing standards which we felt needed to be maintained, which led to some challenging discussions…OUP were generous in stating the final decisions rested with Bob and me. Robyn was a superb collaborator and coordinator.

 

 

There are many contributions from composers in North America, including Yale alumni. I felt our concert should reflect them and others. The grandfather of Carols for Choirs is David Willcocks, so his famous arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful starts the concert. Additionally, there is some Tavener, Whitacre, and then finally Rutter. John Rutter was made world famous as a result of the second volume of Carols for Choirs. What seemed obvious to me, given that we have a brass octet, percussion, and organ, is to celebrate with John’s exuberant Gloria which is still the most performed work of his, and which maintains the link through the concert. This is a unique occasion for Yale Schola Cantorum and is probably not repeatable, though how that pans out is up to my successor!

 

Yale Schola Cantorum Christmas Celebration will take place on Friday, Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Woolsey Hall. The concert is free and open to the public and will also be livestreamed. View details, including the full program.

 

Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir comprising twenty-eight undergraduate and graduate students of multiple disciplines that perform sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day.