The Song Company presents an interesting mix of old favourites and new carols

HARK! 2021

Carols with new and old arrangements from The Naxos Book of Carols and The Patmos Book of Carols

The Song Company, conducted by Francis Greep
Kurt Ison, organ

Tuesday 21st December | 3.00pm
St Philip’s Church, Church Hill, Sydney

St Philip’s is the oldest Anglican Church parish in Australia. The present church is an attractive Blacket building from 1848-56, quite spacious and with a good acoustic. However, it is in the middle of the Sydney CBD, so perhaps not ideal for a choral concert with eight singers as the traffic noises were occasionally somewhat intrusive.

The Song Company presented a program of 18 carols and a quick perusal of the program showed what looked like an interesting mix of old favourites and intriguing ‘new’ carols – or at least new to me!

The carols were presented in four brackets, with the final carol in each bracket calling for audience participation. So far so good – a fairly standard concert of carols. However, there were a few surprises in store for the audience. It turned out that all the ‘old favourites’ were drawn from two books of carols edited by Antony Pitts, artistic director of The Song Company, and had been given new arrangements. And why not? – I suppose carols can be reinvented and reinvigorated like any other musical form. The only issue here was in the four carols for audience participation where carol singers in the audience used to their David Willcocks arrangements had to deal with some different harmonisations. Hark! The herald angels sing, for example, had an organ part that would certainly have surprised Mendelssohn.

Some highlights of the concert were provided by composers unfamiliar to me and Pitts and Greep should be commended for programming them.

Elizabeth Sheppard is a contemporary Australian indigenous composer and after hearing her carol Mary, gentle Mother I will be seeking out more of her work. It is a simple, but affecting piece in triple time, almost a lullaby.
From Richard Eteson, an English singer, arranger and composer, the choir gave us A Jolly Wassel-Bowl, and very jolly it was, with a stirring organ part and building to a big finish.

It came upon the midnight clear is a very well-known carol, either with the American tune by Willis, or the English tune by Arthur Sullivan. This version, by Jonathan Pitts (‘one of various composers in my extended family’ – Antony Pitts) was a successful re-invention of the carol, catchy and rhythmic.
One of the highlights of the concert for me was a piece by the Central Coast composer, Brian Kogler. Gaudete began with The Song Company clapping a complex rhythm, and then singing a melody in unison before breaking into parts and performing it as a round. The choir performed it very energetically and the cumulative effect was striking. An audience favourite!

Tuesday afternoon was a very hot afternoon and, with covid cases rising alarmingly, the audience was understandably small, but the Song Company were very professional and gave as good a concert as they would have given to their usual full house.

Photos: Chris Hayles