Twelfth Annual Cathedral Christmas
Songs and carols from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland
Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 8:00 pm at Saint Mark’s Cathedral
Pre-concert talk with director Freddie Coleman at 7:00 p.m.
Family carol sing-along with the Flentrop organ at 7:30 p.m.
The wonderful Christmas traditions in the Nordic countries truly make December fun and memorable. Many of those traditions are observed here in America. The music, often based on folk songs, is charming, blending cheer and melancholy into a unique sound. In their wish for light and warmth, Scandinavians really know how to brighten the darkest time of year!
O Yule Full of Gladness: Christmas in Scandinavia
Jul, the Scandinavian Christmas holiday, is celebrated throughout December and traditionally until St. Knut’s Day on January 13. The main celebration and the exchange of gifts takes place on Christmas Eve, December 24. St. Lucia’s Day is celebrated during Advent, on December 13. It is a charming holiday that celebrates a Roman saint who wore candles on her head to light her way as she carried food to persecuted Christians in hiding. A wish for light and warmth is understandable at this time of year in the dark and cold of Scandinavia.
The Christian Christmas celebration was incorporated into the old Norse tradition of a mid-winter festival that celebrated the recent harvest and looked forward to spring. The Norse festival was well known as far back as the fourth century; the merging of that festival with Christian traditions occurred in the eleventh century.
A central aspect of the pagan Germanic celebration of midwinter was to eat and drink well, and in modern times is represented by the Julbord—a buffet, eaten at lunchtime. This may include herring, gravlax (salmon which has been cured in sugar, salt, and dill), smoked salmon, and other cold meats, cheeses, salads, pickles, and different types of bread. There will also be warm, savory foods such as meatballs, sausages, meat-stuffed cabbage rolls, jellied pigs’ feet, lutefisk, and oven-roasted pork ribs. Vegetables such as potatoes and red cabbage will also be served. The dessert of the Julbord might be a selection of sweet pastries, cookies, and other home-made sweets. To wash all that food down you can have some glogg, which is sweet mulled wine, and coffee to finish off the meal. Another holiday dessert is a rice pudding with raspberry jam or cinnamon, usually eaten during the evening after people have exchanged their presents.
Scandinavia has contributed many traditions that we see celebrated in the United States, such as Advent wreaths, candles, and calendars. Christmas seals were first seen in Denmark. And the Scandinavian culture in turn adopted other European Christmas traditions, such as the German Christmas tree and the Dutch Santa Claus.
The musical traditions are equally charming. Scandinavian national music, often based on folk songs, blends cheer and melancholy into a unique sound. Perhaps this reflects the extremes of their climate—midnight sun at midsummer and darkness at midwinter. We will present a broad range of music from this culture, from simple folksong arrangements to sophisticated classical settings of traditional and modern texts.
Notes by Patricia Jennerjohn. Used by permission.
From Norway
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) is by far the most famous composer in Norway and the greatest exponent of Norwegian romanticism. Grieg grew up in an extremely musical family and studied music in Leipzig, Copenhagen and Rome. Settled in Bergen and Leipzig, Grieg was active throughout his career throughout Europe as a pianist and composer. His works include piano and chamber music, orchestral works, stage music, songs and choral works.
Norway has a long relationship with the sea and sailing, so the text of Ave maris stella (Hail, star of the sea) has great meaning for this country. This beautiful and serene setting of the Marian hymn is well known and beloved. Originally set for voice and piano in 1893, Grieg later made this arrangement for eight-part chorus in 1898.
“O Yule Full of Gladness” is an English translation of the familiar Norwegian Christmas tune “O Jul med din glede.” It is traditionally sung with children while dancing in a ring around the Christmas tree.
Norwegian born Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) has been living in the USA for many years, where he is now one of the most performed choral composers in the world. Gjeilo is also a pianist and often appears together with choirs, improvising his compositions. A strong source of his inspiration is film and cinematic music.
From Sweden
Gustaf Nordqvist (1886-1949) was a Swedish composer, church musician, and professor. He served as organist at the Church of Adolf Fredrik in Stockholm 1914–1949 and as a teacher of harmony at the Stockholm Conservatory 1925–1949.
Jul, jul, strålande jul (Christmas, Christmas, glorious Christmas) is Nordqvist’s most famous and beloved work. It has been subject to many interpretations in Sweden, other Scandinavian countries, and internationally by singers, choirs and orchestras. The song was one of the most popular Christmas carols in Sweden during the 20th century. The lyrics describe Christmas as white and snow-filled, depicting all the Christmas blessings, with a wish that Christmas bring light and peace to the world.
Otto Olsson (1879-1964) was a Swedish composer and one of the greatest organ virtuosos of his time. He used his strong background in counterpoint, combined with an affinity for French organ music, to create his late Romantic style of composition. He explored polytonality in his work, an advancement not found in other Swedish works of the time.
Guds Son Är Född (God’s Son Is Born) is part of a set of Advent and Christmas songs Olsson wrote in the first part of the 20th century. The melodic line is passed to various voices, while the rest of the choir provides wordless harmonic support, until the final two verses when all the voices unite in four-part harmony for a joyful finish.
Öhrwall’s Gaudete is a ten-song choral suite that brings life to a 400-year old text from Sweden’s oldest songbook, Piae Cantiones, and was originally arranged for the Swedish Radio Youth Choir. The choir is accompanied by a woodwind trio of flute, oboe, and bassoon.
An acclaimed composer, arranger and conductor, Anders Öhrwall was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1932. Known as one of Sweden’s leading figures in vocal and church music and a renowned Bach scholar, Öhrwall was a church musician at Adolf Fredrik Church from 1962-1999 where he later founded the Stockholm Bach Choir. For three years Öhrwall also acted as musical director of the Swedish Radio Choir and Swedish Radio Youth Choir
Santa Lucia was born in Syracuse, Sicily around 283 and died in 303 AD. The myth is that her parents wanted her to marry a man who she didn’t want to marry. She wanted to devote her life to helping the poor. In protest against the marriage, she poked out her eyes and put them on a platter and sent them to the man. The legend is that her eyes were miraculously restored by God.
It’s said that Saint Lucia blinded herself on the shortest, darkest day of the year, which is the Winter Solstice. Under the old Julian calendar, that day was December 13th. That’s how St. Lucia’s day came to be celebrated on the 13th. (Now, in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice falls on the 21st or the 22nd.)
In Sweden, and other Scandinavian countries, Santa Lucia Day is seen as being the beginning of the Christmas season on December 13. It is a celebration of light – at the time of year when the world is the darkest.
From Denmark
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) A Danish composer, Nielsen’s interest and background in folk music had special resonance for Danes, and this was intensified during the nationalistic movements of the 1930s and during World War II, when singing was an important basis for the Danes to distinguish themselves from their German enemies. Thus, while outside Denmark Nielsen is largely thought of as a composer of orchestral music, in his own country he is more of a national symbol. These two sides were officially brought together in Denmark in 2006 when the Ministry of Culture issued a list of the twelve greatest Danish musical works, which included three by Nielsen.
Towards the end of 1923, Nielsen composed three Christmas carols, all of which were published just before Christmas of that year. They were originally for solo voice and orchestra, and were later set as SATB arrangements. The settings are fresh and uncomplicated, and preserve the folk nature of the songs. We present one of them here.
Nikolaj Frederik Severin Gruntvig was a pastor, translator, writer, poet, pedagogue and a politician. He is one of Denmark’s best-known psalmist poets and was one of the greatest exponents of Romanticism in Denmark. Dejlig er den Himmel blå (Lovely Is the Sky Blue), written in 1910, is one of most famous hymns, which are especially sung in church on Christmas Eve and in homes around the Christmas tree. The hymn tells of Christmas night, when the wise men visited Jesus, and about how the sky gleamed with stars, and the poinsettia showed them the way.
From Finland
Jan Sibelius (1865-1957) stood as a composer at the transition from the late romantic to the modern period. After studying in Helsinki and Berlin, he settled in Helsinki, where he first worked as a music teacher. Only after he had gained financial independence through a state pension, he could establish himself as a freelance composer. His works are extensive; his symphonies and solo concertos became worldwide standard repertoire in concert halls. Sibelius, like so many Finns of his time, was bilingual and generally used Swedish texts in his vocal and choral works. En etsi valtaa loitsoa will be sung in Finnish and comes from his Opus 1 set of Christmas carols.
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s reputation as one of the greatest contemporary Finnish composers is assured. Once Sibelius’s protégé, over his long career he has achieved success in a great number of musical genres, particularly that of opera. But it is his choral works that have made him a household name, both in his native Finland and internationally. He wrote the Christmas hymn Marjatan jouluvirsa as the final song of the mystery play Marjatta matala neiti (Marjatta, lowly maiden), a setting of the Nativity as told in a folk tale in the Finnish national epic, Kalevala.