Ring, Christmas bells
Atmospheric Christmas sounds for young choirs
Christmas without carols? Almost unimaginable! Although the editors Klaus K. Weigele and Klaus Brecht did not set out to conceive a ‘Corona’ choral collection, the arrangements in the new chorissimo! Christmas book are ideally suited for performance under restricted conditions in small scorings. Recorded by members of the Calmus Ensemble, the pieces reveal an effective and atmospheric international repertoire. In an interview the editors give their insights into compiling this new choral collection.
Both the work on and publication of the chorissimo! Christmas choral collection have taken place at a strange time. How do you feel about the timing of this publication?
During the Corona-dominated summer months of 2020 we cheered up our families with Christmas carols! Now we are delighted to have the new chorissimo! Christmas choral collection in our hands. It’s great that the publication of this volume coincides with the new beginning for music-making in schools, groups, and churches in autumn 2020. Now is the time when we choral directors need all the creativity we can muster!
Prof. Dr. Klaus K. Weigele is Director of the Landesakademie für die musizierende Jugend in Baden-Württemberg. He has many years’ experience as a choral director and vocal trainer at the Landesakademie, in workshops, study weeks, and in-service training for teachers.
So which performing opportunites does chorissimo! Christmas offer for the forthcoming festive season?
Because all the choral numbers are (or can be) accompanied on the piano, this opens up lots of options for scorings. This means that in rehearsals and in concerts, Corona-compliant small scorings are possible and also make sense musically; for example, the pieces are scored for just two or three parts, but will also work with just a few voices. And aside from the current restrictions, because of the wide variety of alternations between solo, small ensemble, full choir, equal voices, and mixed scorings there is a truly delightful palette of sounds.
Who is the new choral collection aimed at?
chorissimo! Christmas is part of the school choral collection series chorissimo!, which is now well-established. Twelve years ago we developed the concept for this and published the first volume, chorissimo! orange. We have also used this concept, designed for secondary levels I and II, in chorissimo! Christmas, drawing on all the experience gained from the subsequent volumes we compiled – chorissimo! blue for secondary level I and chorissimo! green for primary school.
Klaus Brecht was a lecturer at the Landesmusikakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany until 2018. His main focus is on vocal work with children, young people, and adults. He is a choral director, vocal trainer, and jury member.
chorissimo! Christmas
chorissimo! orange
chorissimo! blue
chorissimo! green
Which choirs did you have in mind when choosing the pieces?
As with the earlier volumes of chorissimo!, we especially had young, developing voices in mind in our selection of compositions, and in our guidelines to the arrangers. Naturally, our focus was orientated towards young choirs in schools and the community. But adult choirs with few male voices who want to expand their repertoire with three-part settings will also find it useful.
Which criteria did you use in choosing the songs?
With our final selection of 29 compositions and arrangements, variety was the main factor. Variety of style, level of difficulty, variety of Christmas carols covering all facets of the period, variety in the genres of canon, quodlibet, pop, gospel, funk, taizé style, etc.
Which particular plus points do you see for choral directors and singers in chorissimo! Christmas?
It’s wonderful that there is the option of ordering all the pieces in the collection separately, so they can be programmed individually in a Christmas concert. Another big plus is the inclusion of a CD, sung by members of the Calmus Ensemble Leipzig. Their recordings have delighted and touched us, and confirmed the choices we made. For example, the arrangement of Ring, Christmas bells by the Russian composer Kyrill Gureev, unknown in Germany, and the South American style setting of Adoración al niño Jesús by the Danish composer John Høybye are packed with atmosphere.
Finally, there is the practice app developed by Carus Verlag available in the accompanying package, sung by the wonderful voices of members of the Calmus Ensemble. This helps enormously when rehearsing and is immensely valuable for vocal training – something which should not be underestimated.
chorissimo! Christmas - package
What advantages does the inclusion of the volume in the chorissimo! series bring?
It was important for the publisher and for us to link together the different chorissimo! volumes of orange, blue and green. For this new publication, popular pieces from the Advent and Christmas sections of these volumes were revised, and a male voice part of similar difficulty added. This has produced creative opportunities for both school concerts and concert events of all kinds. A musical example of this is the arrangement of Sanna, sannanina by Bobbi Fischer.
As well as this, the suggestions for dance, movement, different spatial layouts, and the basics of accompaniment to be found in chorissimo! green, plus the numerous workshops in chorissimo! blue and orange also offer valuable inspiration for choir rehearsals and concert programs with chorissimo! Christmas.
Which pieces from the choral collection are your particular favorites?
We want to whet your appetite for the new volume with our personal favorite new discoveries. Martin Carbow’s funky arrangement of O du fröhliche radiates pure musical joy. Then quite different stylistic worlds are conjured up by the Baroque Fermarono i cieli by an anonymous Italian composer, Peter Schindler’s pop piece Sei willkommen, Weihnachtszeit, and the powerful Noël des Bergers by the Alsace composer Bernard Lienhardt.
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