Upbeats: Season 4, Episode 14 (Christmas Cracker 2024) Artwork

Braving the Stave

Hosted by Jonathan James and joined by Angharad Smith, a.k.a ‘JJ & Haz’ , this bubbly duo delve through all music and genres, sharing with you their personal favourite pieces, along with some musical jokes that add a playful and informal feel to the podcast. Working as part of Arts Active's Cardiff Classical programme, we run lots of exciting extras alongside it to support the concerts. Check out the Arts Active website for more - www.artsactive.org.uk
Got any comments for JJ and Haz? Email them to A2@artsactive.org.uk
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Yn cael eu cyflwyno gan Jonathan James, yng nghwmni Angharad Smith, neu ‘JJ a Haz’ fel y’u gelwir, mae’r ddeuawd fyrlymus hon yn pori drwy bob math o gerddoriaeth a genres, gan rannu gyda chi eu hoff ddarnau personol, ynghyd â rhai jôcs cerddorol sy’n ychwanegu teimlad chwareus ac anffurfiol i’r podlediad. Gan weithio fel rhan o'r rhaglen Gyfres Glasurol Actifyddion Artistig, rydym yn cynnal llawer o bethau ychwanegol cyffrous ochr yn ochr ag ef i gefnogi'r cyngherddau. Edrychwch ar wefan Arts Active i gael mwy - www.artsactive.org.uk
Oes gennych chi unrhyw sylwadau i JJ a Haz? Anfonwch ebost i A2@artsactive.org.uk

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Braving the Stave

Upbeats: Season 4, Episode 14 (Christmas Cracker 2024)

November 20, 2024 • Arts Active • Season 4 • Episode 14

Christmas Cracker 2024

JJ and Haz bring on the 'hygge' with a homage to the wind quintet, bagatelles and boyfriends (Haz's), carols to cherish and avoid, 'disruptive' descants and a whole new genre of 'earnest kitsch'. Nadolig llawen, pawb!

Got any comments for JJ and Haz? Email them to A2@artsactive.org.uk

Oes gennych chi unrhyw sylwadau i JJ a Haz? Anfonwch ebost i A2@artsactive.org.uk

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Upbeats, Season 4, Episode 14 ChristmasCracker 2024 - Transcript

[Music: Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride]

JJ

Hello I'm JJ

Haz

And I'm Haz

JJ

And welcome to our Christmas special this year, 2024. I've filled the house with hygge, that is to say, I've got three candles here, which is unusual for me. One of them, I think, at least is scented. What do you think?

It smells beautiful.

Are you into hygge?

I am now. Yeah, it's not the IKEA. No, it's not IKEA. But it's like you make homely and…

Yes, exactly that Danish concept of making it as homely as possible, really investing in cosy blankets and twinkly lights and stuff that I don't really ever think about.

No. It's kind of like, a nice touch to a room isn’t it. Just making it… I usually do like… if we're having a dinner party, which is never. I'm in charge of ambience [in French accent], which means candles. Music. That's it!

Wow, that's a big responsibility to get the ambiance [in French accent].

Yeah, I'm busy. I'm very stressed, I’ve got the ambiance [in French accent] to think about. Yeah.

Very good. Somebody else can do the Brussels sprouts.

Haz

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JJ

You're just dealing with the vibes.

Haz

Good vibes only.

JJ

I think I'm going to do that this Christmas. I'm going to be the ambiance guy or the ambiance [in French accent]. Brilliant. Great. And we're sitting here, ladies and gentlemen, with I suppose… what do we call these? Just Christmas…

Haz

Festive headgear.

JJ

Festive headgear. Courtesy of Haz of course. I'm not big on festive head gear, but we'll try and get a selfie to you just so you can get the sense of hygge and festive headgear.

Yeah, you've got a resplendent pair of reindeer antlers, and I've got Father Christmas.

We're trying really hard, aren't we?

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

It is still November. I'm resisting internally.

But also it's actually snowing outside.

For the first day in Bristol. I don't know about you, but yes, that does help.

So we've got everything we need to make a Christmas episode.

We do. We've got some Christmas crackers ahead, everybody, and looking forward to sharing them with you. But first, a question for you has which came first, the string quartet or the woodwind quintet?

Erm… well, oh, I don't know actually. I'm going back on myself now. I think maybe the wind quintet. It depends - what's in a wind quintet?! I don't really know!

Well, let's go back to basics on this.

Haz

Ok!

JJ

What's in a wind quintet nowadays is a flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon.

And that was derived from different combinations. Actually in the 18th century or early 1800s, an octet actually of mainly, sort of, flutes and oboes. Clarinets weren't big in the early 1800s quite yet so that's probably your tell right there.

So the string quartet came first, but only by a generation or two. So 50 years earlier. Papa Haydn, we think of. In that context, as being the father of the string quartet, wasn't really but he was the person to really experiment with it and, you know, make it his own.

He was the OG. We all go back to Haydn and like, study the text, study the, you know, the score. He was the real…. I don't know the real master of the…. Yeah.

Yes, master of the form, certainly, and which everybody then tried to emulate. Now, turns out that with the wind quintet 50 years later, it was a guy called Anton Reicha, an Austrian, who decided to put these rather dissimilar instruments together for his patron, and it was a bit of a radical experiment really, because when you actually listen to a flute compared to a clarinet, compared to horn, you know, it's like having a multicultural gathering, whereas with the string quartet, it's more like having your family around.

Yes, it's like different languages. You've got the flute compared to… how can a flute compare with the power of, for example, a French horn, which I think of being loud and proud, and a flute being quite Aryan and beautiful and ethereal.

They've all got very different personalities, right, that you wouldn't naturally put together in one room and expect to work, but they do. And so that's where it all came from. We have Anton Reicha, spelt, if you want to know,

I do.

JJ

REICHA - Reicha.

So we got him to blame - THANK for…

Well, I think, I don't know, I'm feeling actually, over the past three podcasts, this one included, I'm now a bit of a grumpy old man because I've been slightly grumpy about the harp and the sax.

Sorry, you've only just… when I introduce you I'm like, “Hey, this is my friend JJ, he’s a grumpy old git.

No, you love it. You just have very reasoned, balanced, you know, thoughts about each of the instruments?

I've been traumatised by the sound of an out of tune wind quintet on quite a few occasions because you can almost get away with it in a string quartet because they're like-sounding and at least they're tonally blending.

Yes, that's very true. Same language.

The same language and slightly different accents, but with a woodwind quintet. As we've been saying, if they're both tonally, kind of, dissonant and they're out of tune with each other, which is easily the case with double reed instruments compared to single read and a horn, that can be, sort of, oral torture I think.

Yeah, I'm so sorry that you've that you've been through that.

I'm scarred.

Haz

Ohh, no.

JJ

So let's just replenish our ears. Let's just, you know, go to the bright side of the woodwind quintet repertoire. This is courtesy of the Galliard Ensemble, which I hope people might be able to catch, if you catch this podcast in time, on Tuesday the 3rd of December in Eglws Dewi Sant in the centre of Cardiff, and they're playing as part of the Arts Active lunchtime series, which we are very enthusiastic about.

Great. Yeah, I love a short soundbite of music. Feel really cultured. Feel better than your colleagues in your lunchtime.

It's all about that. It's all about dinner time, conversation afterwards.

I mean, enjoy if you must, but yeah, it's a great little series.

So this is the first piece that they'll be playing, just a snippet of it, and I want you to guess, Haz, I'm putting you, kind of, to test this morning, when you think this piece was written.

[Music:]

What do you reckon?

I always think you're trying to trick me.

So, I think this might…

Sneaky, aren't I?

Oh, you are just… because you're smiling, I don't trust you. I think it might be, like, neoclassical.

Ohh yes, you're spot on.

Ooh!! I did A Level music, once upon a time. Is it actually?.

It's neo-baroque.

Haz

Oh.

JJ

So that puts it gone… have a… you're on the right track, so….

Haz

1935.

JJ

1961.

Bummer.

JJ

Well, only 30 years out so, you know, I think that was just very wisely chosen.

Haz

Thank you so much. It’s because you were giggling. I was like, there's no way this is baroque.

That was by Farkas. I want to pronounce him in the Hungarian way spelt farkas, so I don't, you know, perhaps it's not “sh” the end, but…

Oh, I couldn't spell that anyway.

Shall we just say it that way anyway.

Haz

“Farkash”.

JJ

“Farkash”. So he was trying to imitate early provincial Hungarian Baroque style. Had we got to that, that would be impressive.

Yeah, that was very successful because I was like, oh, nice bit of Baroque music, yeah.

So jolly, isn't it. Perfect curtain opener for this Galliard ensemble event. I hope you can make it on the 3rd of December.

And that's what it should sound like. Perfectly balanced, perfectly in tune, in time, harmony like a choir rather than what I was originally thinking of as a wind quintet.

Absolutely. I quite like… do you know, I've been looking into Farkas. He died in 2000, aged ninety…

Haz
Ohh.

JJ

No, aged ninety-five, it’s a good innings.

Haz

Good innings, that’s great.

JJ

Yes. Happy old man, I think because he was composing right until the end, mainly theatre, radio and TV scores. And as you can hear, he has that ability to write with direct appeal. But another thing to his credit was that he taught Ligety and Kurtág. These big Hungarian names.

Wow. Now when you say Ligety, I think a little bit crazier. Can I say crazy? I mean, like little bit more ‘out there’. Is it a case of a student who just went rogue?

Well, that's you're absolutely right, that is the general perception around György Ligeti, that he was quite avant-garde, explored these microtonal clusters and very interesting concepts in sound as much as in music, and that is true. However, he was also capable of writing things like this.

[Music: Ligeti: 6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet: I. Allegro con spirito. Artists: Les Vents Français]

So fun, I like that.

Comedy parp by the bassoon.

Yeah, bassoonists have to have the last word, don’t they.

To be the bassoon.

Haz

Right at the end.

JJ

Right.

Haz

That reminds me of, like, early film music, you know, with silent film, it sounds like a car chase, like “woah, get out the road!”

JJ

It's cartoonesque, isn't it as well? That is the sound of Ligety letting his hair down with one of his bagatelles, bagatelle. Meaning, sort of, a light frippery of a piece. You know, just entertaining.

And it was based, actually, on a piano work that he wrote called Musica Ricercata. And the whole premise of this Baroque design for the piano was to limit yourself to just a small group of notes that actually expand across the suite. And for this one, we had just. C, E flat, E natural and G - those are the only four notes that he used for that bagatelle.

Wow! I wouldn't have thought that. I wouldn't have even thought that listening to it, it sounds all over the place, but I suppose different ranges of the instruments and...

That's his magic.

Yeah.

JJ

It's fun, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah, I actually like that. I didn't… Ok, not that I'm a cynical old man, but I didn't think I was going to like it - arms crossed like “What have you got for me now then?” But…

I know. You thought I was going to, sort of, put on some heavy Ligeti, kind of, philosophical stuff.

I've had my fair share of listening to Ligety under duress.

Oh, really? That's never a good idea.

No. You know, like Brad Pitt changes his appearance every time he goes out with someone new? So did my musical taste every time I had a new boyfriend in college. So there was a stage I went through. I only listened to Takamitsu and Ligeti because I had to go to guitar masterclasses all the time.

There's only so much crossing your legs, sitting and nodding “mmh” that you can do to a piece that you have no idea what's going on.

I agree with that. I agree with that. Well, let's get back to our Christmas vibes then.

What have you got for me?

Ooh, what have I got for you? Treasure.

JJ

Yes, I'd love a Christmas cracker treasure swap.

Haz

Ok, so I've I love in Christmas carols when they go from major to minor because it makes my heart think, “Am I happy? Am I sad? Am my hopeful? Am I crying at Christmas?” The answer is “always”. But you know, like, so I've got for you a Coventry Carol.

Ohh. Brilliant.

Yeah, so beautiful. And yet so, like we said, also sad and melancholy and then happy and hopeful. So I think I've gone for The Sixteen.

Hmm. So I sent you this in a flurry of excitement this morning. Because I was like, “Yeah, I want to play this!” And yeah, I just thought it sounds so beautiful, it's beautifully balanced and, I don't know, see if it makes you feel happy or sad or...

There’s a plain beauty to it and part of that derives from the mediaeval quality to the sound. It's one of the most ancient of our Christmas carols that we still sing.

Haz

Yeah

JJ

And yeah, the way The Sixteen sing it and we… it's particularly apt that we're choosing The Sixteen, this wonderful group that have been going for… I want to say something like 40 years. I'm probably overstating it.

But they've been on the scene for a fair while now, and Harry Christophers and this wonderful group often, in fact, I think pretty regularly, have been coming to Saint David's Hall, sadly still dark at the moment as we record. Yes, so we thought we'd bring The Sixteen to your household instead and here is the Coventry Carol.

[Music: Trad. Coventry Carol. Artists: The Sixteen]

JJ

We were both leaning into those, what's called false relations in music, we have a deliberate scrunchiness. Yeah, beautiful, isn't it.

Yeah, it makes you stop and go.” Whoa, was that, right?” It's like, yeah, it is.

So wrong, but so right.

So wrong but so right. That's Christmas. That's the false relation at Christmas. “Who are you? Why are you here?”

Have you ever had a false relation of a concert? You know, that felt wrong in the moment, but turned out to be right afterwards.

There's so many times that I play the wrong thing and then close my eyes and pretend that it was jazzy. That's my intention. Just bring a little jazz to it. Just close your eyes and scrunch your eyebrows, like ‘mmm, yeah!’ And people are like “Woah!”

Nice. Well done. You styled it out.

Yeah, I mean, always.

Things you can't style out in a concert. A fatality.

Wow, you've gone straight there.

I've gone straight there.

JJ

Wow. Has that happened to you then?

Haz

Oh, not to me obviously ‘cause here I am, but audience members, I mean, we have to say it, it's like the bingo of Christmas is the Messiah.

Yeah. And it so for lots of people, it's like, oh, I'm gonna go see the Messiah, candlelight, Christmas...

Where are you going with this, where's death in this?

Well, let me tell you when the Hallelujah Chorus comes round and the collective age of the audience is like a million, like these people have an average age of about 100, all start standing for the blinking Hallelujah and I’m sat there playing like “Oh my God, here we go.”

And we're very grateful for them. Let's just say that they do actually turn up for the, you know, sixth Messiah of the season.

Oh yes. I'm so happy, but do you know who's not happy? St. John's Ambulance at the side. It's almost like give them a thumbs up when the Hallelujah chorus is gonna start, we're like, yeah, it's gonna go like ‘duh, de de duh’ half the audience stands up. Half the audience stand up and then fall down,

and you just, like “here we go.” It's just, the blood rushes to the head and there have been several times where, you know, we have to pause the concert, you know, one of those things, it’s like “there might be an interval here.” There might be. Well, what another one?

Wow. Tis the season to be dizzy.

Yes, exactly. But I have another memory as well, not just Messiah, of people just completely ruining a concert. And this is for Carol of the Bells.

Oh yes. Well, should we just play it first?

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Just to put that into the ear, I just think, then, we need to have a health warning on every performance of the Messiah. Just in case.

Just have a think. Ground your feet upon the floor before you stand up. How much have I had to drink? When was the last time I breathed in and out? And then just [breathing sound] “Halle…”, then stand up slowly.

Let's put on Carol of the Bells, just in case you've forgotten how it goes. This is a particularly feisty version from the Saint George's Chapel Choir.

[Music: Mykola Leontovych: Carol of the Bells. Artists: Saint George's Chapel Choir]

Have you ever seen a whole alto section cry?

I don't think I have. Normally the altos are the violas of the orchestra, they're the happy people, right?

Yeah, well, in this one, the sopranos are like [sings] some of them peter off, some of them are fainting a little bit. The altos, meanwhile, are trying to “Ding Dong Ding Dong DING DONG”. Someone’s lost [inaudible] and flipped the page, someone’s got their book upside down “DING DONG”.

And I was playing this once and I won't name the conductor, nor the orchestra, but he just screamed at them “Altos! Will your Dings please be on the Dings and the Dongs on the Dongs” and just honestly sheer…

That's unfortunate right there.

It is, and it just… The crying, it really didn't have the Christmas feel, I think.

JJ

No.

Haz

And then we were all really nervous come the concert and yeah, it just all fell apart.

Fraught is the word.

But that was a particularly jolly performance, don't you agree?

Haz

Yes

JJ

Lusty tenors there.

Haz

Nice

JJ

Absolutely. And perhaps that's not the right word

It always is.

JJ

Given there are trebles involved in this choir, but…

Well, but saying “Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas.”

Do you know? I think you've got a fantastic voice Haz, have I said that before?

Hey, if you haven't you should have done because it's true. I do. What a voice. What a voice for the nation.

We've, kind of, veered into Christmas carol territory now quite happily. I wondered if there were any carols that you tend to avoid because they're so dreary.

So many. Most of them, I have to say. I played my first Christmas carol yesterday, by the way, of the year, yeah.

Oh, well done. Well done. That's. Oh. Wow, that is early.

Time of recording this is November. Later half, don’t worry it's not the first. But yeah, played Silent Night last night. That was great. I do like quite a lilting Silent Sight. My first favourite carol that I would love to hate, which is a bad way of saying my least favourite carol,

would be The little drummer boy.

Oh yes, now I'm right there with you.

Pa-ra pa-pum pum. I will not play it. I will not endorse it. I cannot condone it.

It suppose there are two things for me about that. First of all, it is very repetitious, which is part of its charm for some people.

But also there's the whole Bing Crosby vibe that goes with it, which I find a little bit sickening.

Just the whole thing. Imagine having given birth. Given birth in a manger, in a stable. Outside, what's that sound? A snare drum?! The worst possible instrument, second only to the saxophone. No offence. Do you know what I mean? The worst you could have.

They've done well to make it into a Christmas thing, haven't they?

They heavily marketed this to make it a cute thing, but the advertisers should be paid a lot more for this song let me tell you.

Well, I've taken it upon myself to see if I can reframe The Li’l Drummer Boy. I'm saying “Li’l” because it is actually spelt,

Haz

Li’l.

JJ
Isn't it? Li’l.

Haz

Oh is it?

JJ

I think Li’l Drummer Boy.

Haz

Oh. Like Li’l King.

JJ

Yes.

Haz

Oh, ok.

JJ

I don't know. Is it? I'm now doubting myself. Anyway, it's my duty to see if I could find a funky version of this. I think I have, but let's see, because you haven't heard this. This is Pentatonix singing Little Drummer Boy.

[Music: Katherine Davis: Little Drummer Boy. Artists: Pentatonix]

JJ God bless you and all you stand for, but I won't have it. I'm not having it.

You're not going with the R&B vibe.

Do you know what? When it started and, again, you giggled and were like” You're going to hate this.” Like yes, you're right.

I did have an inkling.

Yeah, but I don't know why. I think it's cause it's so earnestly, like, kitsch.

Gosh, there's something about acapella, particularly at Christmas, that is earnest kitsch. I think that's a sub-genre actually, earnest kitsch. I love that.

Yeah, I'm just like, “stop.” Imagine Christmas Eve. You’re having a lovely time, glass of whiskey, whatever. And they come to your front door.

It's a bit much.

Haz

I'd be like “No, thank you. We don't celebrate it.”

JJ

Yeah. “Well done and everything. However, it's a bit too earnest for my whiskey. There's something when you watch choir groups now, acapella groups, that they seem to look lovingly into each other's eyes as they sing and almost be, sort of, winking to each other as they go. It's oh so, sort of, cosy and precious. And it turns my stomach a little.

Haz

Same.

And I know, this is the thing, we're trying not to be grumpy because we're called, you know, “Upbeats. But I can say positively and optimistically that I hate that. In a loving, happy way.

Yeah. Yes, it's not to our taste, shall we say, in this room. And we are trying hard with our reindeer hats and hygge here. So you gotta understand we're not being entirely grumpy and Bah Humbug.

We gave it a go.

We gave it a fair whack.

I mean. What more can you say?

Well, we're going to give another go with one of my dreariest carols when I come... and ironically, it's called Joy to the World.

Haz

I love this one!

JJ

Well, normally I do… it's beautiful on paper, but actually in practice, you know, generally you get tired congregations going “Joy to the World” [in bored voice].

I slows down.

JJ

Yes.

Haz

And it's like it's like a slow funeral march.

“Duh da da da duh da duh”. Yeah, it becomes a funeral motet, doesn't it? And it's just not right.

JJ

So I thought we might try this version instead and see what you make of this.

[Music: Trad. Joy to the World. Artists: The African Music Experience]

JJ

Haz is swaying

Haz

Mmm. That’s Christmas.

JJ

You're funking! That's what you're doing.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, brilliant. I think that's what we need, is a bit of an African joy and vibrancy to.

Yeah, like gospel choir. I mean, like, the way that congregation sing Amazing Grace wasn't ever supposed to be like that. It was supposed to be like call and response and a big choir. A big celebration. I think, if it's joy to the world, it should be joyful.

It should indeed

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Should we keep the joyful atmosphere going?

Haz

Yeah!

JJ

And I want to just share with you two Christmas cards that are sent out by orchestras based in London. This is, I'm sure… well, I would imagine that the marketing department of any professional orchestra around Christmas has a bonanza, and it's quite common these days to receive, as part of the newsletter, a so-called sonic Christmas card from the orchestra.

And I've been collecting these. Well I haven’t really but, you know, I, sort of, look them out and they often, sort of, fall on my radar. I thought we could compare one from the Philharmonia, which is a wind quintet one, aptly enough, to one from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra by the 2nd violins - they've got a particular brand goin, a second violin Christmas postcard and I think it's wonderful.

A chance to shine.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

So let's start with the Philharmonia.

[Music: Trad. Angels From the Realms of Glory. Artists: Philharmonia Orchestra]

Yep, very nice. Thank you.

Moving on, is it?

No, I that was beautiful. Not my favourite carol. Beautifully played.

It is one of those carols that you need to have really good singers on to do the glorias, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JJ

That go on forever. And you often get people slightly tipsy, going over the top on that one.

100 percent.

JJ

which can be quite fun.

Haz

Every year.

JJ

I'd love to hear you sing the chorus to Angels from the Realms of Glory.

Haz

Dim probs. After this, stick around.

JJ

Ok.

Haz

You'll have a solo performance of me. I'll sing all the parts. Just not the same time.

JJ & Haz

“La, la la la la la…”

Haz

Yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah, it's got to be jolly and with, kind of, splashing sherry around, I think. It's that sort of thing, isn't it?

Wet the baby's head “Wahey!”

We didn't quite get that, sort of, joie de vivre.

I was just going to say joie de vivre.

You were? Yes, a slight.

Yeah, it's the only French phrase I know.

It's slightly lacking in… not... I mean, it's exquisite playing from the Philharmonia wind players.

It was stunning. However, there is something about the general sound of a wind quintet that is quite elegant and restrained

Haz

Demure.

JJ

Demure, that’s a good word.

I think it's so beautiful and well put together, I just think after the back of our gospel choir doing Joy to the World, it's just like I want some more like gung-ho now.

Yes, that was quite polite.

Haz

Mmhm.

JJ

Let's see if Frosty the Snowman played by the 2nd violins of the RPO can raise the game.

[Music: Walter Rollins: Frosty the Snowman. Artists: Royal Philharmonia Orchestra]

That's so cool, I love that.

That's a lot of fun, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah. I mean, cool in the geekiest way of, like, I don't know, like, classical players playing something… I don't know…

Beautifully arranged

Haz

Yeah, stunning.

JJ

Oh my goodness me and you, immediately, with your laser ears spotted the bass there.

Haz

Right, yeah.

JJ

Which, if you YouTube this, you'll see Frosty the Snowman

Haz

Himself

JJ

Himself!

Haz

Amazing how they’ve got that.

JJ

On the bass.

Haz

Yeah, what a coup for the second violins.

JJ

And they're all there in their Christmas jumpers. It's a lovely… I think the RPO win it for me in terms of the hyggee element of a Christmas card.

Uh-huh. Yeah, really cute.

I want to turn to my favourite carol of the season and again we're going to listen to The Sixteen, as we mourn their absence from Saint David's Hall. This is Bethlehem Down by the composer Peter Warlock, and it was composed. In 1927 and it has again this modal mediaeval quality to it, and he's harking back to that era, but - and I suppose it's a restrained beauty as well - when I compare it to the Coventry Carol it's… they feel like cousins in that respect. But actually, he was writing it together with the lyricist Bruce Blunt in order to raise some funds for some Christmas drinks, because they're particularly strapped for cash that year.

I love that and I would give generously. Do you know, like, if you're open and transparent about it, like, “give us some mulled wine, yes.”

Well, it was a worthy project and actually, it resulted in this exquisite carol, which marries words of real depth, you know, the third verse talking about myrrh for embalming and wood for a cross, are bringing in this prophecy of Christ's death as well as celebrating all the other Christmas themes. It's a carol of real depth.

[Music: Peter Warlock: Bethlehem Down in D Minor. Artists: The Sixteen]

JJ

Haz it's not time to go to sleep yet.

Lay me down upon a bed of straw in this manger.

It is very soporific, isn't it?

Ohh it's gorgeous.

It's, well, beautifully sung there at a lovely slow tempo, very reflective. But I love that sequence in the chorus. Harmonically very classy, I think.

Yeah, I couldn't sing you back the tune, but I think it would be beautiful midnight mass, like, you know, candles, just sitting there quietly contemplating and…

It's the musical equivalent of a flickering candle, isn't it?

Yeah, that's nice. Wake me up though. Flipping I gotta drive back home after this. What can we have to wake me up?

Well, two descants I think to finish, don't you think? We need a jolly good descant - from discantus in Latin.

Haz

Ohh.

JJ

Which means “a song apart” and it derives, well, partly from the practice in the mediaeval era of having a line, a cantus firmus, the fixed melody, and around that you'd have these improvised lines, particularly at Christmas, and that would be the discantus line.

So, I love the idea of this and I was driving down here trying to think of the word that best describes, like, a descant for me, and I came up with two - one is obnoxious, but I mean that in the most love-filled way and the second is disruptive. I love that about them.

JJ

Really?!

Haz

Yeah.

Obnoxious and disruptive.

Yeah, but I mean that, and I mean that with love like, just like the naughtiest puppy in the in the litter, you know, you're just like “What are you up to over there?”

Are you talking about when they're, sort of, badly sung?

No, I mean when they're beautifully sung, but they've got that… so, the one I'm going to bring to you has got the crunchiest, I think crunchiest chord of all the descants in all of the hymns.

It's gotta be Hark the Herald.

It's gotta be Hark the He… and you know, the one I mean!

I do.

Haz

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

JJ

Let's hear it right now. This is King's College, of course.

[Music: Trad. Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Artists: Choir of King's College, Cambridge, David Briggs, Stephen Cleobury]

JJ

My goodness. That's a fine organ sound as well, isn't it, crikey.

We were just like screaming and punching the air. It was like we've been a football crowd like “YEAH!”. Honestly, it's like “What are you doing up there? Get down from there right now.”

They’re showing off aren’t they.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Oh dear.

Haz

Yeah, I love it.

JJ

Great harmonic moments there, and that was the David Wilcox descant, of course,

Haz

Of course.

JJ

That gets brought out every time at this [sic. time of] year.

Once a year

JJ

Once a year, it's a classic. We all look forward to that moment in the final chorus.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ and Haz

[sing Hark The Herald]

JJ

Yeah. Oh, my goodness me. No, that felt good.

Haz

Yeah. Yeah

JJ

But I… not quite disruptive for me, but I know what you're saying.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I know what you're saying and I'm going to finish this podcast with well, first of all, a big thank you to everybody who's joined us throughout the year, and I know there must be some.

Oh yeah, one or two.

JJ

Regular.

Haz

For sure.

I think more than that, don’t you think?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JJ

Yes, definitely.

Haz

Three or four.

So, thank you to all of you who've been listening with us along this year, and we wish you a Nadolig Llawen, a blwyddyn newydd dda.

Haz

Nice one.

JJ

And yes, we will be back, I'm pleased to say, in the new year.

And until then, here is a new descant for you, I believe, composed by Stephen Cleobury, and this is for Once in Royal David City. Happy Christmas.

Hwyl.

[Music: Trad./ Stephen Cleobury Once in Royal David’s City. Artists: Adam Banwell, Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Douglas Tang, Stephen Cleobury]