The Song Company’s Christmas Fare
The Song Company performs Australian and English carols old and new in celebration of the upcoming festive season. This final program for the year will feature the Coventry Carol Lully lulla in its original mediaeval dramatic setting in a concert that sparkles with the season’s joy while reflecting on the more sombre realities of the Christmas story.
Mezzo-soprano Hannah Fraser returns for this Christmas tour, alongside Young Artist Chloe Lankshear. The performances also mark the final tour for longstanding ensemble member, Richard Black as he departs The Song Company at the end of this season after many fruitful years.
“Lully lulla” is the refrain of the well-known Coventry Carol which is one of the songs arranged by Thomas Mawdycke in 1591 from the mediaeval mystery play, The Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant. This work is justly famous for its chillingly evocative tale of Herod’s jealous rage set against a bittersweet lullaby sung by three mothers. Underneath two thousand years of traditional embellishment and commercial accretion, there is a timely reminder of today’s realities of exile, refugee status, and the ‘Slaughter of the innocents’.
Selections from The Song Company’s perennial Call for Scores are woven into the retelling of the story, including a number of a cappella rounds from Foweles in the Frith and The King of Blis by Brian Kogler.
And finally, it wouldn’t be a Christmas concert without Gloria in excelsis from the first part of the 15th century, featuring scintillating syncopations and wonderful harmonies that could have been written yesterday.
Sydney/ NSW CONCERT DETAILS AND DATES: http://song.company/lully-lulla/
Friday 24 Nov | Yellow House, Sydney | 7.00pm PREVIEW NIGHT
Saturday 25 Nov | Blackheath Uniting Church | 3.00pm
Thursday 30 Nov | Newcastle Conservatorium | 7.00pm
Saturday 2 Dec | St James’ Church, Sydney | 7.30pm
Tuesday 5 Dec | Berry Uniting Church Hall | 2.00pm
Sunday 10 Dec | Wollongong Art Gallery | 3.00pm
Saturday 16 Dec | Four Winds, Bermagui | 8.00pm
