Pro Carmine choir will present their annual Christmas concert in aid of the Grocott's Christmas Cheer Fund this Friday (4 December) at Christ Church in Speke Street.
Pro Carmine choir will present their annual Christmas concert in aid of the Grocott's Christmas Cheer Fund this Friday (4 December) at Christ Church in Speke Street.
The programme will include a variety of Christmas music – some of which will be familiar to Pro Carmine concert regulars and some of which is completely new repertoire.
Choir master, Peter Breetzke, points out, the choir has been singing Christmas concerts since 1979 so it's not always easy to find something different.
"There are problems when it comes to choosing Christmas music. You want to avoid the tunes people are going to hear over and over again while they're doing their Christmas shopping.
But you also need music that people identify with. Our compromise is to include some new music alongside some old favourites."
This year there is a new Kyrie based on French carol tunes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier; a "new" carol by 16th Century composer Michael Praetorius, "Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem"; a modern setting of a traditional lullaby, "Dormi Jesu", by Peter Aston; a carol called "Shepherds Come" by Neil Saunders; and a US Carol, "Behold that Star", in a spiritual style by Thomas Talley.
More familiar favourites include Adam Lay y Bounden, Sing Christmas!, Gaudete and We Wish You a Merry Christmas The concert will also include various readings – including an English soldier's account of the famous "truce" that happened in the trenches in World War I where British and the Germans sang carols to each other from their respective trenches and even swapped cigarettes and played football and the ee cummings poem "I thank you god for most this amazing day".
Entrance to the concert is free but there will be a collection for the Grocott's Mail Christmas Cheer Fund which this year is supporting the Ikhaya Losizo Cluster Foster Home Scheme to help them continue to provide a safe and loving environment for 18 vulnerable children between the ages of 2 and a half and 18.
So, come and get into the spirit of Christmas and help to support a good cause. Pro Carmine's Christmas concert is at 7pm this Friday (4th December) at Christ Church in Speke Street.
Sherry will be served to welcome you in! Watch Pro Carmine perform Adam Lay y Bounden at their Christmas concert in Riebeck East in 2013.
