A Ceremony of Carols

A Ceremony of Carols
by Benjamin Britten
The composer, 1968
Catalogue	Op. 28
Genre	cantata
Occasion	Christmas
Text	excerpts from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, ed. Gerald Bullett
Language	Middle English, Early Modern English, Latin
Composed	1942 (1942)
Movements	11
Scoring	Originally for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. Later arranged for soprano, alto, tenor, bass

A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28, is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten, scored for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. Written for Christmas, it consists of eleven movements, with text from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, edited by Gerald Bullett; it is in Middle English. The piece was written in 1942 while Britten was at sea, going from the United States to England.

The piece was written at the same time as Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia and is stylistically very similar. Originally conceived as a series of unrelated songs, it was later unified into one piece with the framing processional and recessional chant in unison based on the Gregorian antiphon "Hodie Christus natus est", heard at the beginning and the end. A harp solo based on the chant, along with a few other motifs from "Wolcum Yole", also serves to unify the composition. In addition, the movements "This Little Babe" and "Deo Gracias" have the choir reflecting harp-like effects by employing a canon at the first in stretto.

The original 1942 publication was written for SSA (Soprano, Soprano, Alto) children’s choir. In 1943, an SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) arrangement was published for a full choir. Many of the movements are written as rounds or call-and-response pieces – lyrically simple for the sake of the children performing. The SATB arrangement shows these origins quite clearly throughout many of the movements; this is most notable in Balulalow. There are three-part divisis in both the tenor and bass parts. Each of these lines individually mirrors a line in either the soprano or alto parts, as though the tenor and bass sections are a men’s choir singing the original SSA composition with an SSA choir.

This movement is sung exclusively by the sopranos [link] and is patterned off of a traditional processional in Christian church service. It has no time signature and can be sung a variety of tempos as to make the movement more flexible. The last several measures can be repeated to allow for the whole of the ensemble take their place.