Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Christmas Carols

Описание: Fantasia on Christmas Carols is a 1912 work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. First performed at the 1912 Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral, the work is a single movement of roughly twelve minutes which consists of the English folk carols "The truth sent from above", "Come all you worthy gentlemen" and "On Christmas night all Christians sing" (i.e. the Sussex Carol), all folk songs collected in southern England by Vaughan Williams and his friend Cecil Sharp a few years earlier.

This work by RVW was etched in my mind at a young age. It means so much to me, and Christmas wouldn't be the quite the same without listening to it at least once.

My photography includes images I took in various parts of the Derbyshire Peak District, at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (monk in sun-shaft), and at Lincoln Cathedral. I added two works by the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio on the theme of the Nativity: the first is "The Adoration of the Shepherds" (1609); the second is "The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence" (also 1609). (In October 1969, two thieves entered the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Italy and removed the Caravaggio Nativity from its frame). The third painting is a detail from "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne" (c.1508) by Leonardo da Vinci. The final image is "Bound Lamb" after Francisco De Zurbaran's "Agnus Dei" (Spain 1636).

At 00:32 is a photograph I took of a British robin in my garden (North American robins are thrushes, entirely unrelated). The robin has become strongly associated with Christmas in Britain, taking a starring role on many Christmas cards since the mid 19th century. The robin has also appeared on many British Christmas postage stamps. An old British folk tale seeks to explain the robin's distinctive breast. Legend has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain. The blood from Jesus' wounds stained the robin's breast, and thereafter all robins got the mark of Christ's blood upon them.

Choir of Guildford Cathedral
Barry Rose, Master of the Choristers/Conductor
John Barrow, Baritone
Pro Arte Orchestra
An EMI Recording (1966)