PLU Choir and Orchestra performing ‘A Christmas Invitation’
I am pleased to say that a three-movement suite of Christmas Music composed by Jac Redford, for which he commissioned me to write new poetry, is being broadcast this month on a series of television stations across the United States. Broadcasts start on the 8th December in Texas and continue across the United States up to and including Christmas day itself. The full list and timings of these broadcasts can be found On This Page. You can also download the full concert program Here. And there is a DVD of the performance available Here.
The whole piece is a return to, and commentary upon, Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, starting on fairly traditional ground with Fezziwig’s Ball, but then moving, with Christmas Present, and Future, into some contemporary concerns. The music is being performed by the choir and orchestra of the Pacific Lutheran University and here is how they introduce it in the programme:
A Christmas Invitation
Composed for Richard Nance and the Choirs & Orchestra of Pacific Lutheran University
MUSIC BY J.A.C. REDFORD/TEXT BY MALCOLM GUITE
A Christmas Invitation is a three-movement work for mixed chorus, soloists and orchestra. I have chosen Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
as inspiration, although the texts are original poems by Cambridge poet Malcolm Guite. The setting is not intended as a literal tableaux. Rather, because of the metaphoric value of the story’s spirits, Christmas Past, Present, and Future, I hope a variety of responses from convivial joy to thoughtful re ection will be invoked.The first movement (Fezziwig’s Ball) revels in the nostalgia and merriment of our Victorian Christmas traditions, with music full of rhythm and vitality. As the movement closes, both text and music cast a shadow of loneliness over this beautiful scene, leading into a sober second movement (Look! Look! O man, look at the world you make) which re ects on Dickens’ surprising revelation of Ignorance and Want under the robe of the spirit of Christmas Present. The third movement (Christmas is the Lord’s own day, Rejoice!) proclaims hope for the future in the sort of redemption that was offered to Ebenezer Scrooge, while at the same time acknowledging that
there are significant choices still before us. I hope this new holiday composition will be memorable and enjoyable for all!
Here are the poems as they are sung in each of the three movements, I hope you enjoy them both as poems in themselves and in the musical setting for which they were written:
I – Fezziwig’s Ball
“Trim the lamps,” says Fezziwig,
“Tonight it’s Christmas Eve!”
And every lad is clearing space
And rolling up his sleeve,
And now we’ll have the shutters up,
And clear the desks aside
And make the warehouse snug and bright
To dance at Christmastide
Here’s porter for the fiddler,
And brandy for the guests,
And sweets and cakes and comfits
In richly laden chests.
And children rush around the feast
And gaze with shining eyes
On roast meat and cold meat
And minced meat and pies
(The holly berries glisten,
The ivy holds the light,
A blaze leaps up the chimney
To warm the winter’s night)
Here’s music for the couples
And dancing to the tune
As we all weave around and back
Beneath a Christmas moon
And here the young and and hearty
Cut capers at the ball
With their old host and hostess
As nimble as them all
But silent in the corner
Invisible to all,
An old man and a spirit
Who cannot join the ball.
His long life on the outside
Is looking in at last
And longing for the chance he missed
In every Christmas past.
The power to make men happy
Had once been in his hands
If he could just release it now
That he might make amends!
And will he bloom or wither,
That long-excluded shade,
Who leaves a ghostly Christmas Past
And hears the music fade?
II – Look! Look! O man, look at the world you make!
We close the shutters up to make our feast
To share our plenty only with our own
But who is this? A stranger, not a guest,
Who calls us now to take the shutters down?
Look! Look! O man, look at the world you make!
These are your children, Ignorance and Want!
Look at the ones who suffer for your sake;
Pinched in their poverty, withered and gaunt,
Sewing the clothes and shoes you throw away,
Assembling every shiny new device.
You wrap the goods they make for Christmas Day,
Your children get the gifts –these pay the price.
But you can change, for change is in the air,
Want is a child who might yet find relief.
Loosen your love, release your heart and share,
O dare to be a patron, not a thief!
Let all your love for family and friends
Be widened by His Love, and make amends.
Rise from your table, throw the window wide
Take down the shutters and unbar the door
Welcome the stranger, call him to your side,
That he might teach you what this feast is for!
III – Christmas is the Lord’s own day, Rejoice
Christmas is the Lord’s own day, Rejoice!
Rise and recover while you have the choice!
This is the day to loosen and release
The day to hear again His living voice.
“On Christmas day I come to be with you,
Today I take your nature for my own,
Today I offer you a heart of flesh,
Or will you choose again a heart of stone?
This Christmas choose between true life and death,
This Christmas choose between the good and ill,
This day I breathe in you my living breath,
This day you may do any good you will!
Oh come with me and I will come with you
And show you how to love my world with me
To bring your best to Ignorance and Want,
To be and bear the gift that makes them free.”
Christmas is the Lord’s new day, Rejoice!
Rise and recover, you still have the choice!
This is the day to loosen and release
The day to hear again His living voice.
Malcolm Guite 